


Out of the Dark

by ToxikCherrys16



Series: Secret Slaves [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: Always Female Stiles Stilinski, Angst with a Happy Ending, Concerned Pack, F/M, Female Stiles Stilinski, Female Thomas (Maze Runner) - Freeform, Fluff, Gen, Hypothermia, Jealous Scott, M/M, Mentions of WICKED, Mild Sexual Content, Mild Smut, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Page 250, Panic Attacks, Secret Relationship, Stiles Stilinski is Thomas (Maze Runner), Stiles is keeping secrets, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2018-12-14 03:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11774895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxikCherrys16/pseuds/ToxikCherrys16
Summary: *COMPLETE* After going missing, Stiles had returned as a different person, and Scott's taken it upon himself to find out what she's hiding and why she's changed. Disclaimer - I DO NOT OWN THE MAZE RUNNER OR TEEN WOLF!





	1. POV - Scott

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys and gals. This is finally finished... Well, this chapter is. What this story is going to be, is a 3-Part story, told from 3 POV's - Scott, Stiles and Newt. The other 2 POV's will probably be posted as I update the second part to this series - just because they're so long. It took me a good 5 months to get this part completed.
> 
> Anyway, for people waiting for my TW/PJO series to be updated, that will happen soon. It'll be called Big Sister, and follow Stiles into who she becomes in Little Brother.
> 
> Things are a bit hectic at home. I had to see my father after over 14 months of no contact, and he screwed up being a part of my life again in 7 days - so things haven't been great for me over the past couple of weeks. And I'm also moving in the next couple of months, so updating my be slower, but I'll try to get a couple of one shots finished and posted before I move.
> 
> Please R&R/Comment if you want.
> 
> Also, thanks to iKnightWriter who edits all my work. You are a Saint.
> 
> T.C

    Ever since Stiles had been kidnapped, we had become very protective of her. So when she started acting weird – missing meetings, bailing last minute, and leaving Pack meetings early – we took it very seriously. How she dressed had changed as well, and she’d grown her hair out. She hated having long hair before she was taken.

    She was sitting on one of the chairs in Derek’s loft, smiling and typing away on her phone. A blush tinted her cheeks, and her heart sped up slightly; making all the werewolves’ heads snap up to look at her, but she didn’t pay us any attention.

    Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to see that she was happy, but Pack meetings were not the place to let your mind wander. We might not have been talking about anything important or about the Supernatural, but I’d never seen her act like this.

    “Boring you, are we Stiles?” Derek asked, slamming a heavy book onto the coffee table when she didn’t answer straight away.

    “Huh?” She muttered, finally looking up from the screen of her phone, “I agree on the plan of action and I’ll research later.” She went back to texting whoever it was that had her so distracted.

    We all looked at each other, before looking towards Stiles; who was, once again, smiling like an idiot again.

    “Are you okay?”

    “I’m fine. Great, actually.” She said, pocketing her phone in her plaid dress, getting up, and heading towards the door, “I’m heading out now. Don’t know if I’ll answer my phone right away, but leave me a message if you need me.”

    “Wait! Where are you going now?” Derek stood up, as she pulled the door open, “We have Pack nights for a reason.”

    “Out. See you later.” And she left. Again, only the werewolves heard the sound of her Jeep starting and going off into the distance.

    Everybody turned to look at me, as if I had all the answers to everything that was going on with her. I might be her best friend, but we had secrets that we kept from each other. But one thing was for certain… I was going to find out what she was hiding from us.

 

**~oOo~**

 

    I didn’t get a chance to follow Stiles for a couple of weeks. School, the Supernatural, and her ability to sneak around and change the subject always seemed to get in the way. Never underestimate the only human and her ability to avoid things she didn’t want to talk about, and evade anybody who was trying to find out what she was up to; especially when she was the daughter of a cop – the Sheriff to be exact.

    Her text came through just before the start of the meeting, telling us that something had come up last minute. That she was sorry, but it was important and she couldn’t miss it. What the hell was more important then a meeting about the latest Supernatural creature?

    So we decided to follow her. We would all start at her house, pick up her scent, and go off in different directions to try to find out where she had gone.

    Also, let’s say that the Sheriff was not best pleased to have a load of teenagers descend on his house. Told us to leave her alone. That she was safe. But we didn’t listen.

    All of the wolves could pick up on a mystery scent, but it didn’t overpower the scent of Stiles and her dad. It was musky, but a day or two old. Could just be a friend of the families.

    “Everybody got it?” I asked, and everybody nodded, “Lydia, go with Aiden, Danny with Ethan, and Allison with Isaac. We all know the plan, so let’s find her.”

    We all split off, going in our separate directions to take a different part of Beacon Hills, and meeting back at the loft when we’d done our sweep, or found her. Hopefully our search wouldn’t take too long. I just wanted to find out what she was keeping from us.

    Thankfully, it only took me a few minutes to pick up on her scent. Of course her scent would be all over the town, but after following this trail, I caught sight of her Jeep parked outside of a diner. And she was just getting out as I got closer.

    An Asian boy a couple of inches taller than me, with hair that defied gravity, came running out, and swept her into his arms; lifting her up and swinging her around. I didn’t recognize him, or know how Stiles could possibly know him.

    “Hey, Min? I know you’re excited to see me, but you have to stop spinning and put me down.” She laughed, clinging onto his shoulders until he put her down, “That’s much better.”

    “We were getting worried about you. Thought you might’ve broken down on the side of the road in that hunk of junk you call a car.” He slung an arm round her shoulder.

    “You never complain about Roscoe when you need a lift anywhere, so don’t insult him now, or you can walk home. I hear it’s going to rain later, so have fun with that.”

    The boy didn’t say anything to that, only leading her into the half empty diner by the arm. Stiles only laughed at the boy’s antics, as if he’d done it before, because if anybody from the Pack had tried that, she would’ve punched them.

    “Oi, Shanks! Look who finally decided to show up.” He shouted, going to a table near the window, which already had a couple of boys sitting down. One reminded me of Jackson, while another reminded me of Boyd on first glance. The last boys didn’t resemble anybody I knew, unless you counted the strawberry blond and brown hair as one.

    Each one of them got up and hugged her; one of them asking what she’d like before going to the counter to order for her, while the others continued to hug like they hadn’t seen her in weeks or months.

    The thing that caught my attention was the fact that all of them were on high alert. Their backs straight – on guard – at unexpected noises. It reminded me of how Stiles acted when she first returned home. Apparently she’d been worse in the hospital, but none of us had been allowed to see her in the secure facility, or any of the other survivors for that matter.

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

    It was after they all sat back down and the food arrived that I left them to go back to Derek’s loft. I was going to ask her about it later, but I had to wait until she was alone and it was just the Pack to hear what she had to say.

    When I arrived, I found that all the others were back, and sitting in various places around the loft; waiting for me to arrive.

    “Did you find her?”

    “Yeah.” I nodded, “I found her.”

    “Well? Where is she?” Lydia asked, standing up, “Why didn’t you bring her back? We agreed to bring her back with us if we found her."

    “She was at a diner, with a bunch of boys.” I said darkly, “And how they acted, it was like they knew her well – maybe even better then we do. What if she lets something slip to them about us? About _what_ we are.”

    “Scott, I don’t think she’d let anything slip.”

    “She was gone for almost two years. How do we know that she hasn’t changed since she was kidnapped? We don’t even know who took her, and the people who do, won’t tell us.” Lydia became the voice of reason.

    “Do you really think she’d do that though?” Isaac asked, “I’ll admit, she’s changed, but I don’t think she’d do anything to put us in danger.”

    “We could always ask her.” All of us turned to face the twins, mainly because we couldn’t tell which one of them had spoken, “Maybe, instead of following her, we just ask her to tell us when she’s ready.”

    Allison and Danny agreed with what the twins suggested, but the rest of the Pack outvoted them. We had to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.

    The text that I sent to Stiles was short and to the point – Need to see you ASAP. Can you make it over in twenty? – and hers was equally as short, with a simple ‘Yeah, sure,’ coming back only a couple of minutes later. I told her to come to the loft, hoping that she didn’t catch onto our plan.

    She was on the phone with someone when she arrived, talking to them about picking something up on her way over. From what she was saying she’d get, I could tell that she wasn’t talking to her father, unless she was letting him have fizzy drinks, pizza and all the other junk food she was mentioning.

    "I’ll get them when I finish with this… Get the pizza delivered, you know what I like… Not sure how long I’m gonna be… Well just start without me if it comes to that. I know where you keep the spare… Okay. I have to go.” She was right outside the door now, “See you later.” I could hear the she was smiling, and it was confirmed when she walked into the loft.

    As soon as she walked through the door, she knew that she wasn’t coming for a normal emergency Pack meeting; what with all of us standing around the room, and a wooden chair placed in the middle. She knew that this was an interrogation. The smile fell from her face.

    “Take a seat, Stiles.” Derek said, motioning to the seat, “We have a few questions we’d like to ask.”

    Slowly, she walked to the chair and lowered herself onto it. She was nervous, and her heart was beating like a jackhammer. I hated having to do this, but it needed to be done. We needed to know why she’d changed.

    “Where were you?”

    “Why is it any of your business? Are you going to follow me if I refuse to tell you?” She was met with everybody’s silence, which just proved her suspicion, “You’ve already done that, haven’t you? That’s why you wanted me to come here. I should’ve known.”

    “We’re worried about you.” Lydia piped up, “You’ve changed a lot since… Since you…”

    “Since I was kidnapped? I think anybody would change after what I – and the others – went through.” She got to her feet, “Did you think it was all sunflowers and roses? Because it wasn’t. It was a nightmare.”

    I saw her rub her left leg slightly, and it was then that I noticed the white scar peaking out from under her skirt. How had I never noticed this before? She didn’t have it before she was taken, so it must have happened during the period in which she was with them; given how it had healed completely.

    And her entire demeanor had changed when she stood up as well. Gone was the fidgety, over excitable, innocent girl that we were all used to, because she had been replaced by the warrior – the survivor – who had hard eyes that had seen too much in her short years.

    “What happened to your leg?”

    “None of your business, McCall. Stop prying into my secrets, when I know everybody in this room has their own.” She came and stood in front of me, "If I’m forced to tell you mine, then you can tell me yours. Until then, _leave me alone_.”

    She turned on her heel and walked out on us. Danny followed her, but he came back a few minutes later. He told us that she would interact with us, if she had to, at school and on the lacrosse field, but to leave her alone the rest of the time.

 

**~oOo~**

 

    The decision to leave Stiles alone was hard on all of us. We saw her hanging out with some new students; who just happened to be a couple of guys from the diner, as well as another that I didn’t know. They were loud, kept throwing food at each other, and were talking about joining the Lacrosse team.

    “Coach wants some more decent players. Maybe we could join the Track team as well.” And she started telling them about the game, and how they should come watch during the next practice, “You can watch me, and my badass skills.”

    “How could we say no to that?” The new blond boy said, taking a curly fry from her plate, only to get his hands slapped when he tried again, “And sharing is caring, Tommi. You can’t always keep _all_ the curly fries, especially from me.” He had an odd accent – Scottish, I think.

   All of the Pack was just staring at them, and although not all of them could hear the conversation, they knew that the stealing of a curly fry was a big no when it came to Stiles. She would fight you if you even tried, but the blond just seemed to get away with doing it.

    “Bite me!” She leaned in closer to him, and he looked like he was about to reply when he was cutoff.

    “And changing the subject. Why should I waste my afternoon watching lacrosse practice?” The one who reminded me of Jackson asked.

    “Because you have nothing better to do.”

    That led to a lot of laughing and muttering from the group. It was like they’d had this conversation before, and a similar outcome had happened then as well.

    “Come on. I’ll race you to Coach’s office, and I bet you that I can beat you, even in these boots.” She stood up, showing them her ‘Gwen Cooper’ boots as she called them. She’d been obsessed with Gwen’s boots in Children of Earth, so she bought some.

    “Alright.” The blond and ‘Min' stood up too, and then got into their stance, “Three… Two… One… GO!”

    Stiles was off like a shot, weaving her way through the tables to the double doors of the canteen; only stopping when she reached them. The other two hadn’t even started, but I think that had more to do with them struggling against their other two friends.

    “Hey! This isn’t fair!”

    “Don’t pretend that you don’t like looking at my butt. I know that Minho does. He used to look at it a lot when we were running the Maze.” She winked at them.

    “Say what now?” The blond looked towards his friend, who was looking very sheepish and trying to explain himself, “What the hell does she mean, Minho?”

   “I’ll explain it later, Newt. Like when we are in a safer environment.”

   “Like when Nick and Alby are around?” The ginger one smirked, “And it’s not nice to play with your food, Tom.”

   Stiles started pouting and leaned against the doorframe, but I could see slight upturn of her lips. She was enjoying herself, and everybody knew it.

   “You’re no fun, Benny. Neither are you, Gally. The only one who is, is Newt. He does this thing with his…” She gave a small scream, and started running again, as Ben and Gally let the other two go, and they started giving chase to the little brunette.

   We could hear them laughing all the way down the hall, and the screams that Stiles issued when they started gaining on her.

 

**~oOo~**

 

    True to her word, Stiles got Newt and Minho to try out for the team, much to the dislike of the Pack, most of whom were First Line. We had a little laugh at them when they came out in some ill-fitting, borrowed kit though.

    But as soon as they got out on the field – after Coach’s usual shout at the team – Stiles, Newt and Minho worked like one person. Every ball thrown, they caught, and they scored with ease whenever they got a chance to shoot. Coach put them on First Line almost instantly.

    And the cross-country run we did after practice… They completed it like it was nothing. They beat all the Supernaturals that ran, and they treated the three-mile run, like an early morning jog – even boasting that they’d done a five-mile run together before even coming to school.

    Now, I’ve known Stiles since we were about four years old, and apart from the two years that she was missing, we’d spent almost every minute together. Not once, in all those years, had she ever willingly gone out on a run. She only did the cross-country runs to stay on the lacrosse team.

    “We’re still on for tonight?” I heard her ask Newt. She didn’t even sound out of breath as she took a swig from the water bottle she was holding, before handing it to the boy she was talking to.

    “Of course.” He answered, taking the bottle and drinking from it, before throwing it to Minho, “Seven o’clock. I’m going to beat you this time. I’m determined of it.”

    “Dream on. I’m the Master.” She wrapped an arm round his skinny waist, while he put his arm round her shoulder, "Gally got close, but Nick is the only one to actually beat me.”

    “You two shanks are cute, you really are, but I never get invited to these things.” Minho said, throwing his arm round the taller boys shoulder, “I always feel left out. Give me a little love.”

    They all started laughing, and walked off to the stands where their two other friends and Coach were waiting. I tuned out after Coach asked them about the numbers they wanted on the back of their jerseys – Newton 05, and Lee 07 – and asked about joining the track team as well.

    I thought it was irresponsible – as team Captain – to add three new bodies to the team when we had a game at the end of the week. We didn’t have enough time to train them to the standard that was required, and we had no idea how well they’d gel with the team.

    Coach shot me down when I brought my concerns to him though. He told me that they had more time to adjust then I had before my first game. He told me to “Suck it up, Buttercup.”

    So, by the first game of the season, we were as ready as we could be. The new boys had uniforms that fit, and their own lacrosse sticks and gear. They were currently talking with the Sheriff, and the only other friends that they seemed to have.

    “Good luck, Kiddo. You’ll do great.” The brown haired one told Stiles, as he hugged her, “And I bet the others would say the same thing if they were here.”

    “How come we never get a hug?” One asked, but when they tried to hug him, he ran away; much to the amusement of the group.

    “Cause you always do that, and Tina likes my hugs."

    “Don’t worry though, Princess. I’ll hug you whenever you want. Maybe we could even spoon once in a while.” The redhead winked at Minho.

    “Look at Benny being sarcastic. We’ve been rubbing off on him.”

    That’s when the whistle blew to signal the players to get into position, which we all did in nearly record time. Danny was in goal, like he always was, and the rest of us just spread out.

    Then the whistle blew for the start of the game, and the ball was in the opponent’s hands. It didn’t stay with them for very long though.

    Minho intercepted the ball when it was thrown, and almost immediately passed it to Newt, who took off running down the field. We all thought that he was going to lose it when he got just past halfway, when every player went for him, but Stiles slid under one of the players legs, and Newt launched the ball at her. And that’s how the first goal was scored.

    Everybody was floored that Stiles Stilinski, the ADHD nerd who was always on the bench and known as an awful player, had actually scored a goal. The first game she’d ever played, and the first goal was scored in the first minute.

    And that was really how the rest of the game went. A couple of goals were score by a member of the Pack, but most of them were scored by either Stiles, Newt or Minho. The final score ended up being Devenford Prep – 4, Beacon Hills – 11.

   And then we went to the changing rooms for the after-match talk about everything we did, and how we could improve, but Coach didn’t have anything bad to say. He praised the two new players and Stiles, before she left the boys changing rooms to go to the girls ones.

    “Yo, Danny!” She yelled, opening the door to the boys changing room, and walking through the half dressed boys; nearly all of the team having learnt that when it came to Stiles, she didn’t care about privacy, “You wanna come to dinner with us?”

    By ‘us’, I think she meant her dad, Newt, Minho, and the other boys who were in the stands cheering them on. I’d recognized all of the boys in the stands from the diner that she’d been to before the argument.

    “Yeah, alright. As long as you can drop me home at the end.” He answered, grabbing his lacrosse gear and closing the locker.

    “Dude, we were gonna have a movie night afterwards. You can stay over. Plus, Nick, Newt, and Alby are adults. You’ll be in safe hands.” Minho said, putting on his shirt and closing the locker.

    “I’ll ask my mom, but I shouldn’t see a problem with that.”

    Stiles whooped, and high fives Newt and Minho, before jumping on Danny’s back and demanding that he take her for food. They just laughed at her, while they walked out of the room; discussing which films they were going to watch.

 

**~oOo~**

 

    After nearly a month of staying away, no matter how much the rest of the Pack told me to leave her alone, I just couldn’t. I knew that I should, because she looked happier then I’d ever seen her, but I had to make sure that she was safe. So I went to her house.

    The Sheriff opened the door when I knocked, but he didn’t look to pleased to see me. Given the fact that Stiles probably told him about us following her, and then interrogating her, I’m surprised that he didn’t slam the door in my face.

    “What do you want, Scott?” He asked, folding his arms.

    “I want to see Stiles.”

    “Well, she’s not here.” He was telling the truth. His heart remained steady, and apart from a small frown on his face, he was completely calm.

    “Then where is she?”

    “She’s out, Scott.” He sighed, “She’ll tell you what you want to know, when she’s ready to tell you. I think she’s just mad at the Pack because you invaded her privacy, and then tried to force her into revealing something she didn’t feel comfortable with sharing. She hasn’t even told me everything that happened to her.”

    I turned around and left after that. Apart from seeing her at school, and the occasional couple of words in class or on the field, I’d had no contact with her. I was ready to apologize, but she never seemed to be alone when I wanted to say it. She was always with one of the new kids.

    So I was going to find her by scent. Given how well it had worked in the first place, I had been reluctant to do it again, but I knew that now was the time.

    Following her scent was a little harder then it had been last time, but I hadn’t been around her as much as I had back then. And seeming as I hadn’t gone into her house to look for anything with a strong scent, I was working off by my memory.

    But it turns out that it was easy to find and follow her scent – all I had to do was follow the strongest scent I could pick up. Probably having known her for a long time helped as well.

    When I found her though, it took me a couple of minutes to realize that it was her. And I was not happy with what I saw. It wasn’t where I found her, or what she was wearing that angered me. It was who she was with. Newt.

    She was in an open back, wine coloured dress with black heels and hair over the shoulder, and was hand-in-hand with the tall blond. Due to the dress, I could see a healed scar on her right side of her lower back.

   “So what’s the special occasion?”

   “Can’t I take my girlfriend out for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant? Does there have to be some ulterior motive?”

   “No, there doesn’t.” She stopped walking with him, and stretched up to kiss him on the cheek, “But you are a little cheeky, so you never know.”

   He started laughing, but agreed with her. He also leaned down to kiss her on the lips, and they fit together like they’d been doing this for a long time.

   The smile on her face wasn’t something that you could fake, but I kept on seeing red at the two of them together. How could she keep something like this from me? We told each other nearly everything, and that had only stopped when she was taken.

   They also didn’t notice me until I walked up to them. It scared the both of them, as they were too wrapped up in themselves to notice.

   “So this is what you’ve been keeping from me, huh?” Well this was not going to go the way I was planning on, “I thought we were best friends, that we told each other anything and everything, but this is a pretty big thing to keep from me.”

   “Like you haven’t kept anything from me.” Stiles turned around so fast, that Newt had to grab her to stop her from falling over, “And I didn’t think that my relationship had anything to do with you.”

   “It has everything to do with me.” I yelled, “If I’m going to keep you safe, I have to know everything.”

   “You didn’t keep me safe the first time.” She countered, Newt grabbing her round the waist to stop her from launching herself at me, “You were too wrapped up in your own relationship, that you didn’t take the threat against me seriously. And then I vanished for over two years.”

   Seeing him grab her made my eyes flash red for a second. I knew that she wouldn’t be able to do much damage to me, but she would probably end up hurt herself.

   “We searched for you.”

   “Well not hard enough!” She kept fighting against Newt, even though she probably knew she had no chance of actually breaking through his hold, “Maybe if you’d tried harder, you’d still have the friend you knew.”

   That’s when she defied the odds, and actually wriggled out of Newt’s grasp, and made a break for it. She had tears running down her face, and the heels she was wearing didn’t slow her down in the slightest.

   Before either of us could move, she had already disappeared into the night.

 

**~oOo~**

 

    After we lost Stiles, we knew that we had to call in reinforcements. Well, Newt did. I was just going to ditch him and follow her scent again, but Newt was not somebody you could lose. He just seemed to pop up out of nowhere.

    So I called the Pack. Told them to meet us at the edge of the Preserve – which is where we lost her – and to expect some new comers, courtesy of Newt, who had called this ‘Nick’ dude and the Sheriff.

   Everybody arrived pretty quickly, and oh boy was the Sheriff ready to rip me limb from limb. The only time I’d ever seen him this angry, was when Stiles had stolen his County Sheriffs car, and taken it for a joyride with me.

   “I told you to leave her alone. What part of that is so hard to understand?”

   “All I wanted to do was apologize.”

   “If that was your way of ‘apologizing,’ then you need to look at what it means in a dictionary.” Newt all but growled at me, “You made her feel so shitty about not telling you she had a boyfriend, that she ran.”

   All of the Pack, apart from Danny, all looked taken aback. Stiles in a relationship, was not something anybody had thought about.

   “You haven’t been around that long. You’ll probably leave her at some point, and I’m gonna be the one to pick up the pieces.”

   “Well we’ve been a couple for almost two years. And she’s saved my life.”

   The dark-skinned boy who’d arrived with Newt’s team of reinforcements, put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.

   “Now is not the time for you to lose your temper. What you need to be doing… What we should all be doing, is finding Thomas. It’s cold, and she’s alone. Our priority should be finding her.”

   “Alby’s right. We should be working as a team, not fighting. You can fight this out when she’s home safe, but until then, you two --” He pointed at Newt and I, “– are going to be working as a team.”

   That’s when we all split off into teams. Each group had somebody from the Pack or the local law enforcement, and somebody from the new kids. We thought that best, instead of having somebody else being lost in the woods.

   Newt and I walked in silence for what seemed like hours. We were both trying to cool down, but it was incredibly difficult when the person you’re mad at, is walking almost in step with you.

    “Look, I know you don’t like me, but can we just pretend to get along for her sake?” He asked, easily keeping up with me, “I love her, but I won’t make her choose between the two of us. It’s not fair on her.”

    “No offense, but I know nothing about you. I’m trying to keep her safe.” He had a point, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

    “And you think her running around with the Supernatural is safe? Yeah, she told me all about what you guys are, and what she used to do in her spare time.” He moved his flashlight to look in another direction, “She actually came to my house in tears after she left yours.”

    That was news to me, but if I asked Danny about it, then he would probably be able to tell me about what she had been going through since she left the loft and hadn’t looked back. He was the only one that she would talk to.

    Then Newt’s flashlight stopped on something, and he took off running. I only caught a glimpse of what he was running towards as the light moved with his arms, until he finally stopped when he reached what he had seen.

    On the ground, was a pale lump, but I knew that it was a person, because I could hear their heartbeat and smell their blood. They weren’t shaking from the cold, so that told me it was starting to get pretty bad – Stiles had told me everything she’d found out about hypothermia when she wrote her fifth grade science report.

    When I got closer to them, my worst fear was confirmed. Stiles was the pale lump that I’d seen, but she was now covered in Newt’s jacket, and he was motioning for me to give him my jacket to cover her legs. I could see that she didn’t have her dress on anymore, and I knew that they only started to remove their clothing, when the person was getting too cold.

    “Call an ambulance. You know the area better then I do, and I’ll call Nick and the Sheriff. If we can get more bodies here before the ambulance, we can start to warm her up while we wait.” He threw my phone at me, while he put his to his ear.

    So, by the time I got off the phone, Minho, Gally and Derek were crashing through the woods to get to us, and they were followed by the Sheriff, Peter, and the tall, brown haired boy that I assumed was Nick. I only knew four of the six because of school, so the other two were kind of a mystery. And there had been more than six guys who arrived to help with the search.

    “Come on, Tommi. Open your eyes. Let me see those beautiful eyes.” But she didn’t move, or give any indication that she’d heard him at all.

    More and more people kept arriving – one group having the wine coloured dress and heels that Stiles had been wearing – and nearly all of them we didn’t know, but each giving up their jackets without having to be told.

    When the ambulance arrived, and they unbundled all the jackets off her to wrap her in a blanket, I saw that the wound I’d seen earlier wasn’t just on her back. A similar scar was seen on the right side of her stomach, a smaller puncture mark was on her left, and the jagged line on her leg, ran most of the way up her thigh.

    “Who’s riding with us?” One asked, as they lifted Stiles into the ambulance.

    I looked at her father and everybody else in our ragtag group, before stepping forward. However I wasn’t the only one to come forward. Newt did as well.

    “What the _hell_ makes you think, that you’re riding with her?” I glared, “She’s _my_ best friend.”

    “Yeah, and she’s my girlfriend!” He almost yelled, “And tell me, do you know what happened to her when she was kidnapped? Do you know _who_ took her? Hell, do you know _what_ they did to her? To all of us?”

    It was hard to come back with something to that, because she had never told us what had happened. Everybody said ‘give her time,’ and I never did. I pushed for information, until she finally snapped, and walked away; never to talk to us again, unless it was her snarky comments or just plain ignoring anybody who wasn’t in her new circle of friends. Or rather, her old circle from when she was gone.

    “I’ll take that as a no. How are you going to be any help, when you don’t know the first thing about it? You won’t be.” He got into the back of the ambulance, and the doors were closed.

    “Why aren’t you going with her?” I asked the Sheriff, who was looking at the retreating ambulance, “Surely you’d be better to go with her. You are her father after all.”

    “And as much as I hate to admit it, Newt knows her better then anyone.” He took a deep breath, "She changed, Scott. She’s not the same girl as she was before. When she was found, she didn’t even recognize me, and the only people she trusted, were the others who were found with her.”

 

**~oOo~**

 

    The trip to the hospital was a quiet one. I ended up in the back of the Sheriffs car, with Gally talking the shotgun seat, Allison sitting next to me, and another boy called Frypan – what kind of name is Frypan? – sitting by the other window.

    Gally was very angry, and Frypan said it was good that we had the metal barrier between us. I got the feeling that he was more volatile then all the others, even Nick who had a good couple of inches on him and more muscles.

    “Newt, how is she?” Gally jogged up to the pacing boy when we arrived, “Please don’t give me any bad news.”

    “I don’t know.” He continued to pace, not paying any attention to the friend who was no standing in front of him, “She started shaking in the ambulance, and they took her straight through, and now they won’t let me see her. They told me that she had hypothermia.”

    “She’s going to be okay.” He put a hand on the blonds shoulder, “She’s going to be okay, Newt. She’s survived much worse than this, and so have you. Don’t give up hope now.”

    “But she looked so pale. When they hooked her up to a heart monitor, it could barely pick up her heart beat.” Newt had tears in rolling down his cheeks, “And they had to pin her down because she was shaking so much.”

    “And we’ve dealt with much worse with no proper medical equipment or training.” Gally started pulling Newt towards the seats, “Sit down. Pacing isn’t going to make anything go faster.”

    It seemed to take an age before anybody even came out to tell us what was going on. By this time, the Sheriff and everybody else who had been on the search team, were crowding the waiting room. Alby, Nick and Gally were trying to coax Newt into looking up from his knees – where his head currently rested – while everybody else just sat or stood waiting for any news.

    But my mom came out. If she was shocked by how many people were waiting, she didn’t show it on her face. She just looked at all of us, before going to Newt, who had looked up when the door opened; his eyes red and puffy.

    “She’s okay, a little cold, but you guys got to her in time.” She told him, rubbing his hand in a comforting way, “We still need to warm her up a bit, but you can see her, if you want.”

    Newt nodded, standing up from the chair he’d been in for at least an hour. I was half expecting him to fall over when the blood ran back down to his legs, but he just got up and followed my mom like he’d just walked in.

    It would be another half hour before my mom came out again, giving a couple more of us permission to go and see Stiles. The look on her face told me that I was going to be in the shit when we got home. I deserved it though. If it hadn’t been for me, she wouldn’t be laying in a hospital bed.

    “We had her sedated while we got her core temperature up, but she’ll probably be waking up in a couple of hours. It was only so she didn’t try to take off all the blankets we were using.”

    She led us to a room. Stiles had a blanket draped over her and a cannula in her nose, while Newt was holding her hand; his head resting on the bed and his eyes closed. The machines were letting off a steady beeping.

   “Took us a while to get her heart beat up cause she was so cold. And then when we got it up, it started beating too fast. We have no idea what was going on, but we got it back down to a normal rate.”

    “Is she going to be alright?”

    “She should be, yes. A couple days in the hospital, and she’ll be ready to come home.” My mom looked over to me, “But next time she keeps something from you Scott, just let it go. Know that she’ll tell you when she’s ready.”

    “Absolutely. Understood.” I nodded my head, not daring to look my mom in the eyes. I could tell that she was giving me ‘the look’ that scared both Stiles and I on many occasions over the years.

    Even though Stiles eyes barely opened, we all noticed the little flicker of movement. I don’t think she was actually awake, but rather it was just an involuntary reflex that happens once in a while.

    “Love you, Newt.“ She murmured before her eyes closed again, and she slipped back into her slumber.

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

    It was hard to believe that it had been so long since the incident that had landed Stiles in the hospital, but before we knew it, all the girls were talking about Prom, and the dresses that they were going to wear, and make-up and hair. It was exhausting, and so hard to keep up with what they were talking about.

    Poor Newt and Minho had been dragged along to the shops to carry all the bags of clothes and accessories that were being bought. By the end of the day, Minho looked a bit shell-shocked about what had happened, and how they had been roped into it.

    “ _I was buying a suit when they accosted me._ ” He'd said, “ _Is it not safe for us shanks to go when girls decide to go shopping? Can you even call it shopping? It’s more like a military operation._ ”

    Newt was smiling though. He got to spend the day with Stiles, so he happily followed her around all day. I don’t think I would ever get their weird group, and all their slang.

    Our friendship with them had grown since the hospital. Nick – who was the appointed leader of them – told us what they’d been through at the hands of WICKED, their fight for survival, and the deaths of their friends. I understood why Stiles didn’t want to tell us where she’d been. It sounded like a nightmare.

    “Stop messing with the tie, you piece of klunk."

   Nick and Alby – the appointed chaperones for the night – had been fighting with Minho and Gally for the best part of an hour about the ties that they had to wear to Prom, and they were not happy about having to wear them.

   “They’re pointless. What good do they shucking do?”

   “Make you look presentable, Princess.” Ben walked in, pulling on his jacket, “But I’d be more worried about your hair, if I were you.”

   “What’s wrong with it?” Minho ran into the bathroom, looking for any imperfections with his hair, while everybody else just started laughing at him, “It’s not funny to joke about a man’s hair.”

   The rest of us just kept on laughing. We’d learnt within the first couple of weeks of being their friends, that Minho spent way too much time working on his hair than was probably healthy.

   “You are making an impression on all the girls that will be there. You never know, you might get a dance.”

   “Who are you kidding? They’ll all be too jealous of my hair to ask me anything.”

   “Just wear the damn tie, before I superglue it to your head.”

    When the Pack had started hanging out with them, getting used to the humor and slang was the hardest thing. And their hierarchy was another thing. They could wrestle and argue as much as they wanted, but when Nick said ‘enough,’ he meant it, and they listened to him.

    We’d tried using their slang once, and we were never going to try that again. It was definitely a face palm moment, and I knew it as soon as the words had left my mouth, but it was too late to stop from saying them.

    “You know, you boys take longer to get ready, and we have a lot more work to do.” Lydia announced, walking into the room in a pale pink dress; followed by the rest of the girls that had been getting ready in the other room.

    “Do you think this hair doesn’t require a lot of work?” Ben joked, pointing at his friend, who was still obsessing with his hair, while Nick was tying his tie – much to Minho’s annoyance.

    Lydia didn’t come back with an answer, just huffed, and turned around again. Ben chalked that up as a win, and high-fived Gally.

    “Hey, where’s Stiles?” I asked, noticing that she hadn’t walked in with the girls, “Wasn’t she getting ready with you?”

    “She’s having dinner with her dad and Newt.” Allison told me, sweeping a piece of stray hair behind her ear, “We helped do her hair and make-up earlier, but the Sheriff said something about scaring Newt into never breaking her heart.”

    “She’ll join us later. Wait till you see her dress.” Lydia said, striding further into the room, “I’m here to make sure you’re ready in time for the car getting here. You don’t have much time left now.

    So after the tie wrestling had happened, hair had been fixed, and Minho and Lydia had finished their sass match, we were off to the school. I was actually surprised that Minho kept his tie on, but I think Nick had gone through with his threat of super gluing it together.

    And about five minutes after we arrived, the Sheriff’s car pulled into the parking lot, followed by Stiles’ beloved baby blue jeep, Roscoe. Only it was being driven by Newt, while Stiles was in the passenger side. He parked up, got out, and went to the passenger side to open the door for Stiles; before holding out his arm for her to take.

    “Proper gentleman you are.” Stiles took his hand, and stepped out of the jeep. All we could see was a pair of white heels, before the long, light blue fabric fell over them, and Stiles stepped out from behind the door.

    Now I’d seen Stiles in dresses before – she’d been in them a lot more since she got together with Newt – but never anything like this. The dress was a pale blue, with some intricate lace work at the top, and a corset type back. Her hair was up in some type of braided bun, and her make-up was minimal, but effective.

    The Sheriff took pictures of all of us – the Jeep featuring in a lot of the photos. I knew that it was Stiles’ way of having her mother with her at Prom. Others might find it weird, but it was something that Stiles decided about a year after her mom died.

    Then it was time to go in, and have fun. Nothing was attacking us, we’d had a fairly normal couple of weeks, and if we could get through tonight with no major catastrophes, then we were officially out of school. No more missing lessons to deal with any Supernatural threats.

    We all had a dance with each of the girls, even though Minho had to be dragged away from Stiles after he refused to let her go, shouting ‘we will never be parted my love,’ and laughing like a lunatic at the look on her and Newt’s faces.

    But towards the end of the night, Newt had got Stiles back, and they were currently slow dancing; her head on his shoulder, and he was murmuring in her ear. Her shoes had come off about two hours into the night, and were now being held by Nick; who stood to the side, with his back against the wall and talking to Alby. They knew everything that was going on, and didn’t even have to look.

    I could hear what he was murmuring to her, or rather, singing. He’d taken to singing the song that was playing to her, and she was smiling. Whatever grievances I’d had against him before, they disappeared when I saw how happy she looked.

   “ _I found a love, for me. Darling just dive right in, follow my lead. Well I found a girl, beautiful and sweet. I never knew you were the someone, waiting for me..._ ”

   “She looks happy. What’s he saying to her?” Allison asked, seeing me looking towards them, as we danced.

   “He’s singing to her.” I told her, watching as Newt spun Stiles around, and brought her back to his chest. Stiles let out a soft laugh, but never stopped looking at Newt with adoration in her eyes.

   Allison smiled at them, but they paid no attention to anything around them. “He’s good for her. He makes her happy, and, I know it sounds cheesy, but I think he’s the person she’s been searching for.”

   While Stiles getting taken was heart breaking, and worrisome, and anxiety inducing, and we’d spent a lot of time and resources searching for her, maybe it happened for a reason. None of the people from the Maze would’ve got out without her. She wouldn’t have met Newt. And seeing her with him, I couldn’t actually see her being happy without him.

    “ _… Now I have met an angel, in person, and she looks perfect. I don’t deserve this, you look perfect tonight._ "


	2. POV - Stiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles POV of the previous chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys and gals, I'm still alive. I know, shocker. I thought I was going to self-combust while writing this chapter, because it is so long, and I wrote about 3,000 words over the weekend (and this is just over 9,000 words), and I worked my little tooshy off to do it.
> 
> Anyway, this is basically just Stiles POV of the previous chapter, but it has additions to the previous one. Anything not mentioned in this chapter - like the dinner before Prom - will be mentioned in the Newt's POV. Had they been in this one, I would've been working on this for at least another week.
> 
> Thanks to all of you who have favourited, reviewed, commented, subscribed and all that jazz.
> 
> Please R&R or comment if you want.
> 
> T.C
> 
> WARNING: There is very, very, very mild smut/sexual content in this chapter. This is my first EVER attempt at doing it, so be nice. And there is also mentions of Page 250, so sorry if you start crying.

    It was one of the rare days when I didn’t have anybody hovering over me. I know they meant well, but it was just weird to have them watching my every move. At least with WICKED, you couldn’t actually see them watching you – unless you were looking for the Beetle Blades.

    If I get up for food, they followed me. If I wanted to go out to the shops, they made up some excuse for one of them to come with me. I hated it, and the only people that would understand what I was talking about… Well, I didn’t even know where they were, so I couldn’t even talk to them about it.

    After spending so much time doing things on a schedule, it was hard to slot back into my old life. I used to run when the doors opened, to the middle of the afternoon, and now I could hardly get enough time to go to the toilet by myself. As I said, rare day to myself.

    So when I heard a knock at the door – while I was dancing around the kitchen in a pair of shorts and a baggy jumper – I was immediately on guard. Most of the people who come to ‘watch’ me, come through my bedroom window, or they just use the spare under the doormat.

    I grabbed the first thing that came to hand – which happened to be my baseball bat – and made my way to the door. After what happened with WICKED, I should be more cautious about who I open the door to, but I just had this feeling that I could trust whoever was behind it.

    When I got the door, I brought the bat up and slowly reached towards the lock; opening it as fast as I could, and bringing my hand up to grip the bat more securely, as I got ready to swing.

    But what greeted me behind the door, was someone I wasn’t expecting to see. His blond hair had been cut shorter, but his brown eyes still shined, and his smile hadn’t changed one bit. He was wearing some faded jeans and a loose tee, but he was the same as I remembered.

    “Newt!” The bat fell from my grip as I all but launched myself at him, “You’re here. You’re really here. I never thought I’d see you again.”

    He caught me, and started chuckling into my hair. I hadn’t seen him since the hospital, which had been more than two months previously. To be fair, I hadn’t seen any of the other survivors since then, but I had missed Newt the most.

    “You can’t get rid of me that easily.” His accent would make even the hardest of people melt at his feet, “You are my girlfriend, and you took a bullet for me, so I will follow you to the ends of the Earth, no matter how long that journey is.”

    After a couple more minutes of crying and hugging on the doorstep, I pulled him into the house and closed the door, before bringing him in for a kiss. Well, more like a make out session in the hallway.

    Soon enough, my jumper was being taken off, and Newt’s t-shirt was being thrown across the room. I ended up jumping, and wrapping my legs around his hips, while his hands went to the backs of my thighs. It had been too long since we’d done anything like this, with the guys in the Glade never leaving us alone long enough to do anything, and Nick and Alby giving us the embarrassing sex talk in front of all the Gladers.

We’d just fallen onto the couch. I was straddling him, and he was kissing down my neck, biting and sucking occasionally; causing me to moan and throw my head back. My pulse was racing, his hands were on my waist, pulling me closer, while my hands were tangled in his hair.

    But it didn’t last for long though, because the door opened, and in walked in our resident Hawaiian, Danny; key in hand and a bag of junk food that would probably going to be gone in the next couple of hours.

    “Hey, Stiles. You here?” He hadn’t looked over to the couch yet. He was more focused on closing the door and taking off his shoes.

    Newt groaned, and put his head in the crook of my neck. I knew how he was feeling, and given how I was always watched, I didn’t think that we would get this opportunity again.

    “Yes, Danny. I’m here.” I sighed disappointedly, “Where else would I be?”

    He finally looked over to us, and what he saw left a shocked look on his face. I’d never told anybody, except my dad, about Newt, so I knew that straddling a half naked person, breathless and with hickeys forming down the side of neck, would shock anyone.

    “Cock block, man.” Newt groaned, as I got off him, “That’s what you are. A cock block.”

    It looked like Danny was struggling to form any words. He just kept on looking between the two of us, while I scrambled around trying to get all of our clothing. I ended up putting Newt’s t-shirt on, while he was left in the jumper that I’d had on.

    “Hang on.” He said, examining the jumper I’d just thrown at him, “Isn’t this mine, from when we were in the Glade?”

    “Yeah.” I shrugged, running up the stairs to gets some pants on; almost falling down the stairs in my haste to get down them, and put my pants on at the same time, “I’m keeping both though, cause this one smells like you, and I like the other one. We met while you were wearing that. You can borrow one of my shirts.”

    We had just left a very confused, and bewildered, Danny standing by the door, with a shoe in one hand, and the door key in the other, staring at Newt, or more specifically, at the bullet scar on left side of his abdomen. I admit, I did feel sorry for the guy.

    “Newt, meet Danny. Danny, meet Newt.” I introduced them, finding it amusing when Danny just kept looking between the two of us, almost like we’d grown two heads and started speaking in another language.

    Eventually he just shrugged, put the bags on the coffee table, and sat down in one of the chairs. I think he is the only friend that would do this. The others would have lost their shit, asked a lot of questions, but not Danny. Not much fazed him nowadays. He was too used to the weird stuff that goes on in this town.

    “This wasn’t how I was expecting to be introduced to one of Tommi’s friends.” Newt ran a hand through his tousled hair, “I was going to suggest a sit down dinner, or a picnic, or something. But it’s still lovely to meet you all the same.”

    “You too. I just didn’t know that she had a boyfriend.” I was going to ask how he knew, but he put his hand up to silence me, “I know you, Stiles. You wouldn’t be keeping his clothes if he weren’t important to you. And he wouldn’t be here unless he’d met your father, because you’re not one to keep secrets from him, unless it was to protect him. Plus, what I walked in on was a clue.”

    I blushed, and looked down at my hands. I guess that was a pretty big clue, and Danny was very observant. He normally picked up on things that he wasn’t told about, like Ethan being a werewolf.

    “So how did you two meet?”

    “The damn shank tackled me to the ground a couple years back.” I wrapped my arms round him, and rested my head on his shoulder.

    “To be fair, you were running to a dangerous place.”

    “Stiles doesn’t run. I mean, have you seen her during a Lacrosse practice?” Danny said, before picking up on what I said, “Wait, a couple of years ago? That means you met while you were kidnapped."

    And so the story began. Where we’d been, what had happened, the start of our relationship, and the big rescue at the end. It was easy talking to Danny, cause he’d listen, but wouldn’t talk about it to anybody else.

    “When were you gonna tell us about him?”

    Newt had gone to get more drinks from the kitchen, leaving Danny and I in the living room. He’d sat and listened through the whole thing without any interruptions, and even said that he wouldn’t say anything to anybody until I was ready to say what had happened while I’d been away.

    “No idea. I didn’t know if I’d ever see him again, so I didn’t want to tell anybody, and now he’s here, I kinda want to keep him to myself for a bit.” I told him, shrugging my shoulders, “I… Newt was the first person I met, the first I became friends with. I had nearly no memories of anything before I woke up in that Box. He saved me, when I didn’t know I needed to be saved.”

    “You know you can’t hide it forever, right? The others will find out soon enough.”

    “I know. I just want to keep him to myself for a while. You’ve seen how the others react with me going to the shops, think about what it’ll be like when they find out about Newt.”

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

    The conversation with Danny had been a few weeks ago, and Newt and I were going strong again. I’d learnt that the others were actually moving to Beacon Hills to be closer to me. So I – or rather my father – banned nearly everyone from coming round, and Newt took to camping in the spare bedroom until they had moved.

    When they’d moved and Newt moved out, I found myself missing his company – how he sat at the counter waiting for breakfast, how his arms wrapped around me when we watched movies – but it didn’t mean that we weren’t in constant contact with each other.

_     13:44. From Newt: Everybody’s gone out. It’s no fun without you here. _

_     13:46. To Newt: Nothing is ever any fun without me. _

    It was the middle of a Pack meeting, and I was bored. Nothing interesting was being discussed, and I could think of much better things I could be doing with my time – all of which included Newt.

    It sucked that only Danny knew about my relationship, but it had to be like this. I couldn’t tell them. Yes, I was slowly remembering who I was and my life before WICKED, but I still didn’t trust them enough, and given how they acted towards me on my own, I could only imagine how they’d be to somebody else.

_     13:49. From Newt: Then come make it interesting. _

_     13:50. From Newt: Have I ever told you how cute you are, with that little button nose and the dimples? _

    I could feel the blush rising on my cheeks, and my heart beat faster in my chest; a smile forming during all of this. It took me a couple of attempts to type out a reply, but I eventually just went with what felt best.

    _13:53. To Newt: I’m on my way over._

    “Boring you, are we Stiles?” Something heavy hit a solid surface. I assumed it was a book, but it could have been anything – like his fist hitting one of the walls, or a good, solid kick at a chest.

    _13:54. From Newt: I love you. Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that._

    “Huh?” I asked, looking up from my phone, taking everybody in. They were all looking at me, and I had no idea what we’d been talking about, “I agree on the plan of action and I’ll research later.”

    _13:57. To Newt: You may have mentioned it once or twice. Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it more._

    “Are you okay?”

    “I’m fine. Great actually.” Still on a metaphorical Cloud 9, I pocketed my phone, and started to leave, “I’m heading out now. Don’t know if I’ll answer my phone right away, but message me if you need me."

    “Wait! Where are you going now?” I hadn’t left that many meetings, “We have Pack nights for a reason.”

    “Out. See you later.” And I walked out of the loft, down to my Jeep, and drove off towards where I knew Newt was.

    He opened the door almost as soon as I knocked. I guess the Jeep wasn’t really the best thing to have if you wanted to be stealthy or surprise somebody, but he already knew I was coming over, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he was waiting behind the door for my arrival.

    The smile on his face made me smile as well; my heart giving a little flutter as he took my hand, and pulled me into the house. I hadn’t been here since they moved in, but it looked really homely, with pictures already hanging up on the walls - including the one we’d taken in the Glade before George had died, and the one that my dad had taken of us.

    “First things first.” He handed me a paintbrush and a small pot of paint, “We’ve all agreed to paint out names by the front door. It’s definitely easier to paint it then carve it with a knife.”

    “I think anything would be easier then the knife.” I chuckled, dipping the brush in the paint, and writing my name – Thomasina – on the wall next to Newt’s, “Now I’m officially part of this house."

    He laughed, putting the pot on the table and snaking an arm round my waist; being careful of the recently healed bullet wound. While it was healed, it still hurt from time to time.

    “So, what do you have in mind?”

    It was a couple of hours before Nick, Alby, Minho and Ben came home, and they found Newt and I in the living room, controllers in hands, playing Call of Duty. And it was getting noisy.

    We were swearing at each other, nudging shoulders, and generally just trying to stop the other from winning, no matter what the cost. We were almost as competitive as Gally in a fight, just without the serious injury.

    “With all the noise, I thought you two were doing something that you shouldn’t be.” Nick said, going into the kitchen to ditch the bags he was carrying.

    “You put your name on the wall yet?” Minho asked, dropping into the seat beside me, and throwing his arm round my shoulder.

    “Can’t you read, you piece of klunk?” Ben dropped down next to Newt, as I shrugged his arm off, knowing full well that it was some form of distraction.

    “Haven’t you guys been practicing your gaming?” I huffed, as Newt got killed yet again, “Cause Newt, your aim is still shitty, and you… You just stepped on a grenade.”

 

**~oOo~**  

    Having been watched by WICKED for so long, I knew that the Pack were trying to find an opportunity to follow me. I knew just how to sneak around them, and according to Danny, the Pack had been having their fair share of Supernatural problems going on. And, as far as I could tell, they didn’t want me involved with taking down any threats, so I was bored out of my mind when I went to meetings. So most of my spare time was spent with Newt.

    Was it really any wonder that I didn’t want to hang out with them, when they didn’t do anything exciting? The Maze, while dangerous, gave me a thrill of excitement every time I went out; not knowing what I was going to find, not knowing what might happen.

    And when I was given the opportunity to ditch a Pack meeting to hang out with my fellow Gladers, it wasn’t really a hard decision to make. I texted Scott to tell him I couldn’t make it, and I was sorry.

    “Going to Newt’s?” My dad asked, pouring himself a coffee.

    “No, a small diner with the guys.” I told him, putting my shoes on, “Then I’m spending the night with them. Movie Night, popcorn, pizza and fizzy drinks.”

    “What should I tell Scott if he comes round?”

    “Dunno.” I said truthfully, “They don’t want to involve me with anything dangerous, and I’m bored. I’ve been used to running for hours a day and helping anybody else who needed it. They’re coddling me, and I don’t like it.”

    My dad gave me a thumbs up, as I grabbed my keys and left; jumping into my Jeep and driving off to the diner that we’d agreed to meet at.

    When I got there, I saw Minho start running towards the door. I’d only made it a couple of steps before he was sweeping me into his arms, swinging me round in a circle.

    “Hey, Min? I know you’re excited to see me, but you have to stop spinning and put me down.” I laughed, clinging onto his shoulders until he put me back onto my feet, the world spinning round me.

    “We were getting worried about you. Thought you might’ve broken down on the side of the road in that hunk of junk you call a car.” He joked, slinging an arm round my shoulders as I swayed slightly.

    “You never complain about Roscoe when you need a lift anywhere, so don’t insult him now, or you can walk home. I hear it’s going to rain, so have fun with that.”

    Minho didn’t say anything to that, but he had a mock hurt look on his face, as he pushed the door to the half empty diner by the arm. I was just laughing at him, because it was just typical Minho.

    “Oi, Shanks! Look who finally decided to show up.” He shouted, even though he didn’t have to. Unless something major had happened since I last saw them, they could still see perfectly well.

    They all hugged me – Alby went to order my food – and we sat down. The food arrived, we joked and laughed. It was just like being back in the Glade again, apart from not having Fry’s cooking and having a comfy place to sit.

   We were about halfway through eating, when my phone’s text tune went off – just like Sherlock’s – and Minho almost choked on the bite of food he’d just had, Ben spat his drink in Gally’s face, and Nick and Alby just looked at me.

    “Sorry, that was me.” And Minho burst out laughing, “I changed it when Harris confiscated my phone, and then got Newt to text me. He gave my phone back after that, and hasn’t attempted to take in since.”

    It was a text from Scott saying that he’d needed to see me ASAP, and asking if I could make it over in twenty? And then saying to come to the loft when I replied to say okay.

    I made a quick stop off to get junk food and drinks on my way. As much as I love Newt, I knew he’d either not get enough, or he’d not get what I wanted.

    And just as I was getting out of the Jeep, my phone started ringing. It was Newt. He’d been out most of the day getting DVD’s and anything else we might need - including more pillows and blankets then we would ever need.

    “Hey. I’ve just got some Pack stuff to take care of, and then I’ll be on my way.”

    “Ben mentioned that. Do you want me to pick up your stuff? I know you can’t sleep without your pillow.”

    “I’ll get them when I finish with this.”

    There was a brief pause. “I’ll get them now, cause I’m driving past. What about the food? Nick says we can have whatever we want. The guys want pizza, and they don’t want to go out to get it.”

    “Get the pizza delivered, you know what I like."

    “Any idea when you’re gonna get to ours?”

    “Not sure how long I’m gonna be.”

    “Movies start at six. What should we do if you’re not here?”

    “Well just start without me if it comes to that.” I chuckled, switching the phone to my other hand, “I know where you keep the spare.”

    He huffed. “I don’t like it when we do that.”

    “Okay. I have to go.” I started smiling, “See you later.”

    “I love you.” He whispered, which just made my smile even bigger as I hung up the phone, and walked into the loft.

    When I walked in, I knew that this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I saw the wooden chair in the middle of the room, and I could feel the smile fall from my face. I could see that members were dotted around the room.

    Danny and Allison were away from the others, with looks of anger on their faces. Danny was mouthing ‘sorry’ to me. He knew what was going to happen, and I knew him and Allison were not in agreement with what it was.

    “Take a seat, Stiles.” Derek motioned to the seat, “We have a few questions we’d like to ask.”

    Ever so slowly, I made my way to the chair, and lowered myself down. I didn’t want my heart to give away my nerves, but I couldn’t stop it from beating like crazy. I’ve been through worse things than this, so why was I so nervous?

    “Where were you?”

    “Why is it your business? Are you going to follow me if I refuse to tell you?” I asked, trying to calm my heartbeat, but I was met by total silence, and a slight nod of the head from Danny, “You’ve already done that, haven’t you? That’s why you wanted me to come here. I should’ve known.”

    “We’re worried about you. You’ve changed a lot since… Since you…”

    “Since I was kidnapped? I think anybody would change after what I – and the others – went through.” I stood up, rubbing my scarred leg unconsciously, “Did you think it was all sunflowers and roses? Because it wasn’t. It was a nightmare.”

    I knew that my body languages had changed. Stiles no longer stood here, but Thomas did. Stiles was the innocent girl who got caught up in something she shouldn’t have, while Thomas was the result of torment; a warrior created due to a twisted experiment.

    “What happened to your leg?”

    “None of your business, McCall. Stop prying into my secrets, when I know everybody in this room has their own.” I stood in front of him, looking up at him with hard eyes, “If I’m forced to tell you mine, then you can tell me yours. Until then, _leave me alone._ ”

    And then I was walking out of there, almost running down the stairs and out to my Jeep. I knew somebody had followed me out, and I was just hoping it wasn’t Scott or Derek, cause they wouldn’t be pleased with who was waiting for them.

    “Stiles?” It was Danny, “I’m really sorry. Allison and I were outvoted. We tried to stop them from prying, but they wouldn’t listen.”

    The tears started rolling down my cheeks, even though I’d been trying my hardest not to let them fall. “It’s not your fault, Danny. You already know my secret, and you haven’t told them.” I told him, “It’s their fault. Couldn’t leave me alone.”

    "What do you want to do?"

    “I want them to leave me alone. I’ll interact with them when I have to, but I don’t want them near me if I can help it.” I wrenched the door open, and jumped in; leaving Danny standing there.

 

**~oOo~**  

    If you were to ask me how I was able to drive, and make it to my destination, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. It was pure luck that I made it to where I was heading, and even then I didn’t know how long it had taken me to get there. I had a vague recollection that I stopped somewhere to throw up against a tree, as memories of WICKED invaded my head.

    By the time I eventually arrived at Newt’s, it was pitch black; the only lights coming from the street lamps and the houses. I all but fell from the Jeep upon opening the door, and I just laid there; sobbing on the ground.

    “Tommi? You’re okay.” They swept the hair out of my eyes, “Let’s get you inside.”

    Newt gently lifted me into the air - my head resting on hid shoulder - as he carried me inside. He set me down on the couch, and wrapped a blanket round my shoulders; trying to get a reaction out of me, but everything was blurred by tears.

    “Gal, can you go get one of my tops and a pair of sweats, please?” He asked, getting no reply, but I could hear his footsteps going up the stairs, “Tommi? Can you tell me what happened?”

    “He… He wanted me to…” I sobbed, burying my head in the crook of his neck, “I couldn’t tell them. I don’t want them to know.” My words came out muffled, but I think he understood what I was trying to tell him, because his arms tightened around me.

    “Well the shank should respect what you want to tell him, and what you don’t."

    “That piece of bloody klunk shouldn’t have pried into it.” Newt agreed with Minho, wiping a cold cloth across my face, “Now dry your tears, because we have a whole evening of fun planned, and it can’t be fun if one of us is crying… Unless it’s tears of joy.”

    That’s when Gally returned with some of Newt’s stuff, and handed it to me. I went into the bathroom to get changed, rinse my mouth, and chuck some water over my face, to at least make me look a little better than I did; which was a crying mess with my puffy eyes, dirty clothes, and tangled hair. When I walked out, I at least felt and looked a little better.

    “Aren’t you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?” Newt smiled, and pointed to the t-shirt that had a Storm Trooper helmet on it, but it made me smile as well.

    I sat in Newt’s lap for the rest of the night; my head on his shoulder, and him rubbing small circles across my back, while I ate a tub of ice cream and hogged a bag of chips, and nobody was going to get them.

    By the time I started to get sleepy, I had finished the tub of ice cream and was on my second bag of chips, which was slowly slipping from my hands the more I tried to fight my tired eyes.

    “Go to sleep, Tommi.” Newt whispered in my ear, kissing me on the forehead, “We’re not going to leave you. We’ll be here when you wake up.”

    And he was. All of them were. I woke up to Newt’s arm lazily draped over my waist as we spooned on the couch, while the others were placed around the room in a bundle of bodies, blankets and pillows.

 

**~oOo~**  

    True to my word, I was having very little interaction with the Pack as possible, except for Danny who came round to Newt’s for movie nights whenever he could. He never talked about the Pack, and he never revealed any of my secrets to them.

And since Ben, Gally, Minho and Newt had come to Beacon Hills High School, I was finding myself less lonely at lunch. I got to eat lunch with the people I was used to, joking just like we used to in the Glade.

Coach had mentioned about needing some more Lacrosse players for this season, so I brought it up with them; explaining the rules and about the game. Three of us were Runners, and two were Builders. Ben was a Runner for a while, until he got Stung and didn’t want to go back in again.

Newt agreed, and took a curly fry from my plate, looking at me with those adorable brown eyes that could get away with nearly everything. The others didn’t appreciate the slight flirting that ended up occurring.

    But no matter what, Newt and Minho could never turn down a race, and Ben and Gally loved nothing better then having a laugh. Whether it be a race across the Glade, who could eat Fry’s cooking that fastest, or who could run the furthest, they would compete against almost everything.

    “Come on. I’ll race you to Coach’s office, and I bet you that I can beat you, even in these boots.” I stood up, showing them my boots, and smirking at the fat that I knew they couldn’t turn town a bet like that.

    “Alright.” Newt and Minho stood up, and got into the stance they loved to use when racing, “Three… Two… One… GO!”

    Gally and Ben grabbed Newt and Minho by the arms, stopping them from being able to join in with the running until they were let go. I was just able to weave in and out of the people and tables dotted around the canteen, and all the way to the doors before stopping.

    “Hey! This isn’t fair!" I heard Newt yell before I turned around.

    “Don’t pretend that you don’t like looking at my butt. I know Minho does. He used to look at it a lot when we were running the Maze.” I winked at them, almost laughing at the look on Newt’s face as he turned to his friend.

    “Say what now? What the hell does she mean, Minho?”

    “I’ll explain later, Newt. Like when we’re in a safer environment."

    Minho was looking very sheepish, and like he wanted to be anywhere but standing, trapped, in the middle of the school canteen, under the unrelenting stare that Newt was giving him.

    “Like when Nick and Alby are around?” Ben smirked, before looking at me, “And it’s not nice to play with your food, Tom.”

    I pouted, leaning on the doorframe, but I was smiling slightly. I knew that Newt would never hurt Minho, so I didn’t worry about saying it. Sure, Newt would be slightly pissed, but he also knew that Minho and I were best friends, and only saw each other as such.

    “You’re no fun, Benny. Neither are you, Gally. The only one who is, is Newt. He does this thing with his…” I gave a small scream, and started running down the corridor away from them; more screams happening the more they gained on me.

    The more they gained on me, the more they laughed. And they only started to really race each other when we were almost at the locker room. I’d almost made it to the door, when they crashed into me; tumbling, and crashing through the door, and landing on one another - I was on top of Minho’s chest, and Newt was on top of my back.

    So, of course that would be the time Coach decided to come out of his office to see what all the noise and laughing was about. Admittedly, finding three teens laying on the locker room floor might be a bit suspicious, but this was Coach we were talking about.

    “Part of me wants to ask, the other part, says knowing will be even more disturbing than anything I could ever imagine.”

    “We were having a race.” I defended, rolling off of Minho, and causing Newt to fall onto the floor as I got up, “You were talking about needing some new Lacrosse players, so here we are.”

 

**~oOo~**  

    Coach was willing to give all three of us a chance, and given how badly I used to play, I was surprised he even let me try out. But he did, throwing Newt and Minho some ill-fitting kit to use until they got their own.

    Everybody was shocked at how well we worked together, but after basically being confined together for almost two years, it was no wonder we could read each others body language like we could.

    And we were Runners in the Glade, so of course we be amazing at long distance running, like cross-country. Before WICKED, I only ran to stay on the team for Scott, and always got stuck on the bench for the rest of the season. But after seeing how well we worked, Coach was more than willing to give us a chance on First Line.

    Newt and Minho stuck with the numbers they’d been assigned by WICKED, while I stayed at 24. Mind you, Boyd had my WICKED assigned number of 02. Coach even said about joining the Track team as well.

    Scott had started complaining about it. Not enough time to train us to work with the team, no idea how we’d gel with everybody, how did we know it wasn’t just a fluke? What if we weren’t that good on the day. Coach just told him to suck it up.

    By the time the first game rolled round, we were feeling confident. We’d practiced with each other as much as we could, gone on longer runs round the Preserve, gym sessions. It was good to get into a routine again.

    “Good luck, Kiddo. You’ll do great.” Nick was saying to me, as he hugged me, “And I bet the others would say the same thing if they were here.”

    “How come I never get a hug?” Minho asked, but just started running away when Nick attempted to give him one.

    “Cause you always do that, and Tina likes my hugs.” Nick was the only one to call me Tina, just like how Newt was the only one to call me Tommi. He only used my full name when I was in trouble or it was something serious.

    “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll hug you whenever you want. Maybe we could even spoon once in a while.” Ben flirted, winking at Minho.

    “Look at Benny being sarcastic. We’ve been rubbing off on him.”

    That’s when the whistle blew to signal the players to get into position, and then another to signal the start of play. The ball ended up in the hands of our opponents, but it didn’t stay that way for long.

    It was all a bit of a blur to be honest, but Beacon Hills won by seven goals, and most of them were scored by Newt, Minho and I. They never stood a chance when the three of us got on the field.

    The after-match talk was basic. Coach had nothing bad to say, and even praised us for our stellar performance on the field. And praise was not something that came easily for Coach.

    And after I got changed, and persuaded Danny into coming to dinner with all of us, the staying over for movie night, we’d left the rest of the team to meet up with everybody at our cars.

 

**~oOo~**  

    More time passed, and still I stayed away from most members of the Pack. I was on talking terms with Allison, but nothing like I used to be, and she never got anything out of me that the Pack didn’t already know. And obviously Danny and I were still on good terms.

    Newt had taken me out on a couple of dates, but tonight was special – we were going to a fancy restaurant in town. So I had to look good. Dress, heels, make-up and everything.

    I ran down the stairs in my open-back dress, heels in hands because I knew I’d trip over if I tried to run down in them. The last thing I needed was to break my neck, because I was so eager to get downstairs to meet somebody who hadn’t arrived yet.

    “You look beautiful, Stiles.” My dad told me, “I may just have to ban Newt from entering the house, until he proves his worth.”

    “He saved my life, dad.”

    He thought on that for a couple of seconds, before deeming that to be an adequate enough reply to let Newt in when he arrived. And dad insisted that he get a picture of the two of us, because ‘I’ve never seen you in a fancy dress before.'

We took a taxi to the restaurant, so we could have a glass of wine or two, and not have to worry about driving. And I was spending the night at Newt’s, so it wasn’t like we weren’t going to be in good hands. Nick and Alby would keep a watchful eye over us, which always reassured my dad.

“So what’s the special occasion?” I asked, walking hand-in-hand with Newt, and smiling the further we walked.

    “Can’t I take my girlfriend out for a nice meal at a fancy restaurant? Does there have to be some ulterior motive?” He looked down at me, a small smile on his face and his eyes shining.

    “No, there doesn’t.” I stopped walking to kiss him on the cheek, “But you are a little cheeky, so you never know.”

    “You’re right there.” He laughed, leaning down to kiss me on the lips. I could feel the smile forming, as he cupped my cheek and I rested a hand on his hip.

    We didn’t even notice that someone marching up to us, until he was almost right in front of us. At first, I thought it could be a member of staff, but I soon learnt that it wasn’t, and it was, in fact, Scott. I wasn’t even sure if I could call him my best friend any more.

    “So this is what you’ve been keeping from my, huh?” He all by shouted at me, “I thought we were best friends, that we told each other anything and everything, but this is a pretty big thing to keep from me.”

    “Like you haven’t kept anything from me.” I turned round so fast, I would have fallen over without Newt holding me steady, “And I didn’t think that my relationship had anything to do with you."

    “It has everything to do with me.” He yelled, “If I’m going to keep you safe, I have to know everything.”

    “You didn’t keep me safe the first time.” I was ready to launch myself at Scott, when Newt grabbed me round the waist; faded memories of WICKED taking me, coming to the forefront of my mind, “You were too wrapped up in your own relationship, that you didn’t take the threat against me seriously. And then I vanished for over two years.”

    His eyes flashed red for a second, but I didn’t care if he was a wolf. I’d fought things far worse than him in my time with WICKED. I was willing to injure myself fighting him if I had to.

    “We searched for you.”

    “Well not hard enough.” I knew that fighting wasn’t the only way to hurt him, “Maybe if you’d tried harder, you’d still have the friend you knew.”

    I wasn’t sure how I did it, but I was able to wriggle out of Newt’s grasp, and make a break for freedom. I couldn’t be here anymore, not with Scott, and definitely not with the long buried memories that were coming to the surface.

    So I did the only thing I could think of. I ran.

 

**~oOo~**  

    The tears were rolling down my face as I entered the Preserve. I was still in my heels which was a miracle, given the state of the ground.

    They didn’t stay on my feel for much longer, when one of the heels sank deep into the ground, and I fell forwards; hitting my head on something hard. I don’t know what it was, but it hurt like hell.

    For a little while, I just stumbled through the Preserve; my shoes had long since come off, and were now being carried around with me. I was confused, and I was tired, and my breathing was erratic.

    And it was getting hot. I had to get out of this dress. It felt like it was suffocating me, even though it was impossible for it to do that. But the dress was unbuttoned and unzipped, and I was out of it. I was still boiling, but it was made slightly better by the dress coming off.

My dress and shoes ended up being left somewhere when I discarded them, leaving me stumbling around in just my underwear. It was getting harder to think, my head was pounding, and I was really struggling to keep my eyes open.

But I did my best to stay awake, until I couldn’t fight it anymore. I knew I was falling, but I couldn’t stop myself from laying on the ground, and just closing my eyes.

 

**~oOo~**  

_     I woke up standing in the middle of the desert, ruins and sand everywhere, and what appeared to be an abandoned van behind me. I felt cold, freezing even, but the sun was beating down on me. _

_     It seemed to take me a while to take in everything around me, but when I looked in front of me again, there was somebody standing there, staring at me. Somebody who wasn’t there before, and it just seemed to confuse me further. His hair had been torn out in places, leaving him with bald spots. Scratches and bruises littered his face. His shirt was ripped and hanging off his thin frame… And he was covered in blood. _

_     Newt. _

_     “Come on, kid. We have to leave.” The previously abandoned van was now running, and the driver was talking to me, “Can’t you see that your friend is nothing but an animal now?” _

_     This just seemed to be confusing me even more then I already was. And there was this slow beeping ringing in my ears, and other people talking who weren’t really here – saying how they had to warm me up. _

_     Something was calling me to step forward; closer to Newt. There was wildness in his eyes, madness lurking behind them. He was sick. When did this happen? How had I not noticed? _

_     “Hey, Newt.” _

_     A sudden clarity filled his eyes at my voice. It was almost like he hadn’t recognized me until I started to speak. _

_     “Tommi. What are you doing here?” There was something off about his accent. It was British, rather than Scottish. _

_     “I… I don’t know.” I answered, looking round again, “Where am I?” _

_     “Somewhere in the Scorch.” _

_     Again with the confusion. I’d never been to The Scorch, only heard it mentioned by Janson during the final showdown in the Glade. Said it would’ve been our next test, only now they had to get rid of us. _

_     “I can’t explain it. Sometimes I can’t control myself, barely know what I’m doing. But usually it’s just like an itch in my brain, throwing everything off-kilter just enough to bother me – make me angry.” _

_     “You seem fine right now.” He was really starting to scare me. _

_     “Yeah, well. The only reason I’m with these wackers from the Palace is because I don’t know what else to do. They’re fighting, but they’re also a group. You find yourself alone, you don’t have a bloody chance.” _

_     There were now more people milling around, some looking better than Newt, and others even worse. They weren’t close enough to be a problem, but they were in the distance, and it was still unnerving. It made my heart beat faster. _

_     “Newt, come with me. I can take you somewhere safer, somewhere better to…” _

_     He laughed, almost like what I was saying was humorous. “Get out of here, Tommi. Get away.” _

_     “Just come with me. I’ll tie you up if it makes you feel better.” _

_     His face hardened to anger, and his words shot out in rage. “Just shut up! You can’t do one last, lousy thing for me? Gotta be the hero, like always? I hate you! I always hated you!” _

_     “Newt…" _

_     “It’s all your fault. Try save the world, be the hero. And you came to the Maze and never stopped. All you care about is yourself! Admit it!” He spat, his face colouring a deep red,  "Gotta be the one people remember, the one people worship. We should’ve thrown you down the Box hole.” _

_     The beeping in my ears seemed to be getting fasting. _ “We’ve got to get her heart rate down.” _That didn’t come from me, and it didn’t come from Newt,_ “Clear.” _A pain filled my chest, like somebody had just kicked me, or punched a hole in my ribcage._

_     “Newt, stop. Just listen to me. I know you’re okay in there. Enough to hear me out." _

_     “I hate you, Tommi!” He limped his way over to me, and I took a step back in fear. Since when has he had a limp? “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! After all I did for you, after all the freaking klunk I went through in the bloody Maze, you can’t do the one thing I’ve ever asked you to do! I can’t even look at your ugly shuck face!” _

_     “Newt, you need to stop.” I cried.  _

_     But he didn’t listen. He screamed and rushed forward. An arc of lightning shot from the van, skidding and crackling across the pavement, but it missed us. I just stood frozen in place as he tackled me to the ground, knocking the breath out of me; struggling to fill my lungs as he climbed on top of me and pinned me down. _

_     “I should rip your eyes out. Teach you a lesson in stupidity. Why’d you come over here? You expect a bloody hug? Huh? A nice sit-down to talk about the good times in the Glade?” _

_     Another jolt of pain spread across my chest. More people talking. _

_     “You wanna know why I have this limp, Tommi? Did I ever tell you? No, I don’t think I did.” _

_     “What happened?” I was struggling to breathe, and I seemed to be okay with that fact. Like I was ready for it, greeting it like an old friend. _

_     “I tried to kill myself in the Maze. Climbed halfway up one of those bloody walls and jumped right off. Alby found me and dragged me back to the Glade right before the Doors closed. I hated the place, Tommi. I hated every second of every day. And it was all… Your… Fault!” _

_     He twisted round and grabbed my hand, holding the gun that hadn’t been in my hand a minute ago; yanking it towards himself, forcing it up until the end of the pistol was pressed against his own forehead. “Now make amends! Kill me before I become one of those cannibal monsters! Kill me! I trust you, no one else! Now do it!” _

_     “I can’t, Newt. I can’t.” I tried to pull my hand away, but Newt was too strong. _

_     “Make amends! Repent for what you did!” His whole body was trembling, his voice an urgent, harsh whisper, “Kill me, you shuck coward. Prove you can do the right thing. Put me out of my misery.” _

_     The words horrified me, tore into me like he was stabbing me with a knife. “Newt, I…” _

_     “Shut up! Just shut up! I trust you! Now do it!” He pulled me to my feet, the gun still held against his head. _

_     “I can’t.” _

_     “Do it!” _

_     “I can’t.” Tears were rolling down my cheeks, “How can you ask me to do something like this? How could I possibly kill you?” _

_     “Kill me or I kill you. Kill me! Do it!” _

_     “Newt…" _

_     “Do it before I become one of them." _

_     "I…” _

_     "KILL ME!” The fog that had been clouding his eyes cleared, and the Newt I knew and loved shone through, as if he’d gained one last trembling gasp of sanity, and his voice softened, “Please, Tommi. Please.” _

_     And I pulled the trigger without consciously thinking about it; blood splattering my face and clothes. His body fell to the floor, now a dead weight… And I couldn’t breathe. The tears were flowing down my cheeks as I stared down at him. _

    “Come on, Stiles. Breathe for us.”

_     I felt empty, my heart seeming to fall into a black abyss. My legs gave out on me, and I collapsed next to Newt’s body; another jolt ripping through my chest as I laid there. _

_     But I just stared at the sky in a daze. I’d just shot my first love – my only love – in the head. Never mind that he’d asked for it, wanted it, pleaded for it. I could feel myself shaking, and I still felt cold. _

_     Yet another jolt. The voices were getting worried, before my body was jolted again. But what was the point? _

_     For how long I laid there, I have no idea. The jolts had stopped. I could hear Newt talking to me, but not the one from here, and there was a steady beeping as well; nothing like the frantic beeping from before. _

_     My vision was darkening round the edges, my eyelids becoming heavier the longer I laid on the ground. Everything was fading around me. The sun didn’t seem as bright, even though it was still high in the sky. _

_     “Love you, Newt." I murmured, taking his hand and letting the darkness consuming me. _

 

**~oOo~**  

    When I opened my eyes, I could hear a steady beeping, and there was something draped over me. There was a weight on my stomach, and somebody was holding my hand in a light grip. I looked down to see a sleeping Newt; his head resting on my stomach, and my hand resting in his.

    Smiling, I moved my other hand to rest on his head; tears rolling down my cheeks as I remembered the dream I’d had. He jolted up after a couple of seconds, like he’d been trying to stay awake, and failed.

    “Tommi!” He exclaimed, hugging me awkwardly from where he was sitting, “You’re awake! Why are you crying?”

    “I had a dream that you died.” I sobbed, “That I killed you.”

    “Well, I’m alive. Nothing’s wrong with me. It was only a dream.” He brought me in for another hug, letting me cry into his shoulder.

    “It felt so real.” I felt the weight on the bed change as he got on to lay beside me, and he wrapped his arms around me again; letting me put my head in the crook of his neck, “I thought I’d actually killed you.”

    “You’re okay, Tommi.” He said, kissing my head, before I closed my eyes, and fell asleep.

 

 

** ~oOo~  **

    Everything had gone back to normal after the hospital. The Pack and the Gladers were getting along brilliantly, even if it was very rocky to begin with, with Gally wanting to fight Scott as much as he could.

    Prom was on the way, so all us girls were talking about dresses, colour schemes, make-up, hair and everything else that had to be bought and worn. If I had to go through all this torture, I wasn’t going to do it alone. Which is where Minho and Newt came in, because I made sure they were going to be buying their suits at the same time I was dragged along to go dress shopping.

    Lydia, Allison and Erica all came round to my house to get hair and make-up done, before they all left to put their dresses on at the ‘Gladers House' as it had been dubbed by everybody.

    Until then, I was just hanging out in a baggy t-shirt and sweats, waiting to put on my dress until after I’d eaten dinner. There was no way in _hell_ , that I was to get anything on this dress, otherwise I may scream.

Dad was planning on scaring Newt, even though he’d met him before and had no problems with him. I think he just wanted to make sure that Newt wasn’t going to break my heart. I didn’t think he was going to do that, but ‘you can never be too careful, Stiles… Never say never.’

    “Don’t hurt him.” I told Newt, putting the keys to Roscoe in his hand, “Be careful. He grinds in second.”

    “Well, I feel honored to be allowed to drive him.”

    I was nervous for the whole way, wiping my hands on the fabric of the dress, and being careful not to damage the blue and white corsage that was tied to my wrist. Newt squeezed my hand lightly.

    “You look beautiful, and I am the luckiest guy, because I can call you my girlfriend. It doesn’t matter what others think, because they’ll never know you the way I do.” He ran a thumb across the back of my hand.

    My dad escorted us, pulling into the parking lot right in front of us. Newt parked, and ran round to the passenger side to open the door for me, and then held out an arm for me to take as I got out.

    “Proper gentleman you are.” My nerves had subsided, and I was glad. I really didn’t want to be nervous for the entire night.

    The light blue fabric of my dress fell over my feet as I got out, my hair and make-up were just as amazing as it was when Lydia first put it on – using lip stains, tricks, and a lot of hair pins and hair spray seemed to do the trick.

    And after dad took a lot of pictures, we were allowed to go in and have fun. We all danced with one another, even Minho, who attempted to steal me from Newt; giving a maniacal laugh as he did it.

    By the end of the night, Newt had me back, and we were slow dancing; my head on his shoulder, and his hands on my waist as he sang to me. Nick had my shoes, and he was watching us intently – Minho had tried escaping, and he’d been caught by an eagle-eyed Alby.

    “ _I found a love, of me. Darling just dive right in, follow my lead. Well I found a girl, beautiful and sweet. I never knew you were the someone, waiting for me…_ ” He twirled me, before bringing me back to his chest.

    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Scott and Allison talking, but I was focused on Newt and his singing. I was pretty sure I was smiling like an idiot, but I had many reasons for being happy - mainly that we were alive, we’d escaped, and we weren’t in danger any more… Or at least, danger we weren’t expecting.

    “ _… Now I have met an angel, in person, and she looks perfect. I don’t deserve this, you look perfect tonight._ " And Newt gave me a kiss.


	3. POV - Newt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newt's POV of the other 2 chapters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys and gals. I'm not dead, just been struggling with writing the chapter, and then being bombarded by my brain with other ideas, and then the not sleeping. I'm back in my groove now. Working on a couple new projects - so if you love the MCU, get ready. And then my TW/PJO series will get updated, cause I have another one-shot racing round my brain, along with the multi-chapter story for that series as well.
> 
> Anyway, that is not the point. Point is, while I may be working on these other projects, I will probably be taking some time off of Teen Wolf fanfics for a few months. I've basically been working on them for nearly a year, and my brain is asking for a break on said category.
> 
> Now, enough with that, lets get on with the story. Thanks to all of you who have favourited, followed, subscribed, and all that jazz.
> 
> Please R&R/Comment if you want.
> 
> T.C
> 
> PS. The Little Prisoners (the second part of this series) will ONLY be posted in The Maze Runner category. Apart from a couple of characters, it will mainly be set in TMR world. It may change towards the end, but it may not.
> 
> PPS. I've also started selling my art of Redbubble. If any of you want to check it out, my user name is the same as it is on here, and on Tumblr - ToxikCherrys16 https://www.redbubble.com/people/ToxikCherrys16/portfolio?asc=u

    All I had to go on, was a name, subject number, a county name, and an old picture that WICKED had taken to mark their subjects. I wasn’t feeling all that optimistic, but I had to be hopeful.

    If we were in the Glade, you'd go to the Leader if you wanted to know something. Where would you go in the real world? The police seemed like as good a choice as any. I remembered a man in a uniform, with a star badge, taking Tommi with him when she was well enough to leave the hospital.

   So I kept on walking until I came across a building that had ‘Beacon Hills Sheriffs Department.'

   "Hey, I was wondering if you could help me find somebody," I said to the man – whose badge said he was named Haige – on the front desk.

    “Sure.” He sighed, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here, “What’s the name?”

    “Thomasina Edison.”

   The cop looked at me for a couple of seconds before he burst into laughter. "You must really think I'm dumb if you believe for one second that I think you're telling the truth."

    "But I am.”

   "And what's your name?"

    “Isaac Newton.” I told him, getting a little confused, “But everybody calls me Newt.”

    That’s when he started shouting at me about ‘wasting police time’ and a lot of things that didn’t make much sense, which just set me off in my shouting. I didn’t spend all that time with Tommi and Minho, and not know how to argue back.

    It didn’t last long though. Within a couple of minutes of the shouting beginning – and having pulled the copper over the desk and in a choke hold – more people started coming to see what was going on. The hold wasn't enough to kill him, but enough just to cut off his air supply a little.

    “I just want to find my girlfriend. Is that too much to ask?” I said calmly, the copper still struggling against my grip, “Her name is Thomasina Edison, subject number zero two.”

    One of the officers, who'd come from out of an office, pushed his way through to the front of the forming crowd. He had a star badge on his uniform, exactly like the one from the man who took Tommi.

    “You took Tommi.” I told him, not taking my eyes off him, “You took her away. Where is she?”

   "You're Newt, right? You were at the hospital." I nodded, loosening my hold on the officer, "She told me about you, and the others. She didn't tell me much about what she'd been through, but she mentions the people all the time."

   "You didn't answer my question. Where is she?"

    “She’s safe.”

    “Who are you to her? Tommi doesn’t trust easily, but she left with you, so you must be important to her, even if she couldn’t remember much back then. She might remember more now, but back then she didn’t.”

    The man took a deep breath. “I’m her father. And you’re right, she’s not one for trusting easily, but she said she had flashes of me. Something about a ‘changing,’ which gave her little bits of memories. She remembers more now.”

    “I want to see her.”

    “Okay.” He held his hands up to show that he wasn’t a threat, “Why don’t we step into my office, and we can talk.”

    After a couple moments of thinking, I nodded my head at him; releasing the officer from my grasp. He coughed a couple of times, and he looked like he wanted to get back at me, but he thought better of it.

   The Sheriff led me to his office; gesturing to one of the seats in front of the desk - which was covered in papers, photos, and notes. The wall was also had things pinned to it, like maps and string connecting everything together.

    “You look better then you did at the hospital.” He commented, taking a seat behind the desk, “But I would like to think that all of you are doing better since then. I know Sti… Thomas is still struggling to get used to everything.”

    “It’s a lot to get used to, sir.” I told him, “The beds feel like a marshmallow, and going to the supermarket is very strange. We had to grow and kill what we wanted to eat.”

    While my words shocked him, he seemed to take it in his stride. I guessed that he’d been given a copy of the report on what the investigators had found - Nick had a copy come through the mail - so it wasn’t that much of a surprise. Whether he’d read all the report or not was a different matter entirely, but he’d most likely read some of it.

   It didn't have everything though because they did that in person - even if a lot of people didn't show up to it. I didn't go, but Nick and Alby did. A few of the families showed up, but the Sheriff walked out when it got to George's death.

    “How are you all doing?”

   "Okay, I guess. Some of us weren't able to find our families because WICKED killed them, so we're living together. Going to start school in a few weeks as well, even if we will graduate in a few months."

   He sighed and wrote something on a piece of paper before he handed it to me. It had an address on it, and the directions of how to get there from the station.

    “That’s where Thomas is. She’s been… Unhappy, over the past couple of weeks. I think she’s been missing everyone she was kept with, and she most definitely misses you.”

   I stood up, giving the Sheriff a nod, and opening the door to his office. Walking past the officers – who were viewing me with a lot of suspicions – was very weird, especially when I got to the officer on the front desk. He was giving me the evils; his throat still slightly red from my earlier hold on him.

    But they didn’t matter. I had what I’d come here for. It was time to go see Tommi.

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

   It was a couple of weeks after I first saw the Sheriff. He'd let me stay with him and Tommi, instead of traveling the two hours back to the others, when we'd be moving into our newly acquired house in Beacon Hills just over a week later.

     So here I stood, in the middle of the room, surrounded by boxes; some saying our names, and others just saying specific rooms. While we didn’t have that much to call our own, being in an enclosed space made it seem like we had a lot more.

    Getting everything put away didn’t take half as long as I thought it would. We each took a room and unpacked the boxes, then we’d help somebody else with their room if we finished before them. If Minho wasn’t happy with where I’d put his stuff in our room, then he could change it later.

    After spending all week with Tommi, it was kind of hard to move out. She told me all about the Supernaturals around town, and how she was friends with most – if not all – of them.

   When everything had been put away, Nick came in; a small pot of paint and some brushes in his hand.

   “Don’t think we’re gonna get much painting done with those brushes, Nick.” Minho commented, almost collapsing onto the sofa, “Too small to do anything. Probably take us a week to paint Newt. While he may be tall, he’s skinnier than the rest of us.”

   "And we'd need more paint then what you've got." Ben fell into the seat next to Minho, "Not saying anything about your weight Newt, but there's not enough paint in that pot to even colour one of the Beetle Blades."

   “We’re not painting Newt. We’re gonna paint our names on the wall by the door, just like in the Glade.” He told us, “I think this might help us. Yes, we did this in the Glade, and while they might not be the best memories we’ll ever have, we did it together. This is what united every person in those two years.”

   Nick put down the pot of paint and took one of the brushes, before dipping it into the paint, going over to the wall you saw first upon opening the front door and writing ‘Nick' at his eye height. Alby went after him, and soon enough, all of us had written our names on the wall. We just had to wait for Tommi to come round to paint her name on, and then it would be complete until everybody else decided to come visit.

 

**~oOo~**

 

   Movie nights were fun. It was much like the campfires we had in the Glade, only there was more food and we had an unlimited variety of things to do, which didn't include wrestling each other and cooking what we wanted to eat. We could just order food and watch as many movies as we wanted without worrying.

    After a phone call with Tommi, I stopped in front of her house. It just gave her one less job to do when she was finished with whatever the Pack wanted her for, which hopefully wasn’t fighting anything in the woods. We had plans, and they were going to happen, crisis or no crisis.

    I used the key she’d given me to get into the house. She had a key to my place, and we really just spent more time round each other's places, as we did in our own homes.

    She had her bag on her bed; her pillow resting on top of it. It was a well-known fact that she found it hard to sleep without it. Took her ages to be able to sleep in the Glade, and nobody knew why. It made sense when we found out.

    Hooking her bag over my shoulder, and taking the pillow under my arm, I made my way downstairs; leaving a note for her father before leaving and driving home. He knew about our frequent movie nights – and when they were – but whenever I used my key to get in, I always told him I’d stopped by, and why. He told me I didn’t have to do that, but I considered it a courtesy to do so.

    Now came the wait for Tommi to be done. I would’ve picked her up, but she had Roscoe, and she wouldn’t have wanted her friends to ask questions. She wasn’t ashamed of us by any stretch of the imagination, but she wanted to keep what little amount of privacy she had left.

    Ben had ordered the food when they'd got home from lunch with Tommi, and they were now only waiting for it to be delivered in the next half hour or so. Junk food and drinks were already on the table. Everything was going to be ready to go by the time she got here, even if the others had started the movie before she arrived.

    But when the pizza came, and there was still no sign of Tommi, I started to worry about where she was. Alby told me not to. That she had probably got held up with whatever they were talking about, but I had a bad feeling.

    And by the time I heard the engine of her Jeep, I was drumming on my knees, and acting like I’d been injected with coffee. I was pretty sure that Gally would have killed me if she hadn’t arrived within the next ten minutes.

   We hard the driver's side door open and close, but after a minute of waiting for the front door to open, I knew something was wrong, and I was out of my seat and opening the door before Minho had time to give one of his sassy comments.

    From what I could see, there was a dark shape on the ground by the Jeep; only just illuminated by the tinted yellow streetlights. It looked like she was shaking, but I don’t think that had anything to do with the cool air.

    “Tommi? You’re okay.” I ran over to her, sweeping the hair out of her face, “Let’s get you inside.”

   I gently cradled her against my body and picked her up; carrying her into the house and setting her down on the sofa. Somebody threw me one of the many blankets laying around the living room and wrapped it round her shoulders. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy and red.

    “Gal, can you go get me one of my tops and a pair of sweats, please?” I asked, not wanting to leave her, even if it would only be a couple of minutes, “Tommi? Can you tell me what happened?”

    “He… He wanted me to…” She sobbed, burying her head in the crook of my neck, “I couldn’t tell them. I don’t want them to know.” And I tightened my hold around her. I knew what she was trying to say.

   "Well, the shank should respect what you want to tell him, and what you don't." Minho handed me a damp cloth.

    “That piece of bloody klunk shouldn’t have pried into it.” I agreed, lifting her head so that I could clean her face, even if it was only a little, “Now dry your tears, because we have a whole evening of fun planned, and it can’t be fun if one of us is crying… Unless it’s tears of joy.”

   That's when Gally returned with some of my stuff and handing it to Tommi. She went to the bathroom to get changed. I thought that she might calm down more if she was wearing something of mine.

    She looked a lot better when she came out. Her hair had been brushed, her face washed, and her dirty clothes were in the hamper to be washed. My clothes almost drowned her, but it didn’t matter.

    “Aren’t you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?” I asked, smiling and pointing at the t-shirt she’d bought me a few weeks ago.

    For the rest of the night, she sat in my lap; her head resting on my shoulder and surrounding herself with a much junk food as she could, while I rubbed small circles across her back.

   As the night wore on, Tommi started falling asleep. She was fighting it, but she was slowly losing the battle. Her second bag almost fell out of her hand a number of times, and that is when I finally told her what she needed to hear.

    “Go to sleep, Tommi.” I whispered in her ear, and kissing her forehead, “We’re not going to leave you. We’ll be here when you wake up.”

    It didn’t take long at all before all of us were falling asleep as well. I grabbed her pillow, and laid it on the sofa cushion, before moving us into a laying down position; wrapping an arm round her middle, and falling asleep with the movie playing in the background.

 

**~oOo~**

 

   About a week after Movie night, it was time to start school. None of us had told Tommi that some of us were going to be attending Beacon Hills High School, and instead, surprise her when we turned up as students.

    We were given out timetables and locker numbers at the main office, and then made our way into the almost empty corridor. Only one person was by their locker, and I knew it was Tommi. She was wearing a thigh length black knit jumper, red leggings, and her black DM’s; her long brown hair falling like a curtain over one shoulder.

   As we got closer, I could hear her mumbling under her breath about ‘stupid werewolves' and ‘nobody ever listens to me,' while she shoved some books into her locker. She gave a slight scream when I grabbed her round the waist and kissed the side of her neck.

    “Miss me?” I asked, smiling, “Cause I certainly missed you. A lot more then these guys did.”

    I guess I did deserve the elbow I got to the stomach. In what world did I think it would be a good idea to sneak up on somebody like Tommi? She broke somebody’s nose in the Glade when they did that.

    “Idiot.” She murmured, turning around to kiss my cheek, “I could’ve done some serious damage to you.”

    “I’ll remember that for next time.”

    “There’s going to be a next time?”

    “Well, I…” There was a cough behind me, “… We are going to be coming to school here, so I’d like to think there’ll be a next time.”

   A smile spread across her face as she took me, Minho, Gally, and Ben in, almost like she wasn’t believing what she was seeing and hearing. Then she laughed, and ran at the others, bringing them in for hugs.

    “You guys have just made the rest of my time in the hell hole more enjoyable.”

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

    School was not what I was expecting it to be. Being cooped up in a room was not what I wanted to be doing for hours a day. And then having to take work home with you to do overnight. Who came up with this?

   If it wasn't for Tommi sticking with it every day – and Nick breathing down my neck to finish the rest of the year – I probably would've quit school, and done something else with my time. What that something else would be, I'm not sure, but I would've come up with an idea eventually.

    “How do you cope with it?” Minho was still complaining about school, three miles into our daily morning run through the Preserve, “I’d rather spend a night in the Maze, then go back to that place. And I’ve done that, in case you don’t remember.”

    “I remember it perfectly fine, Minho.” Tommi grumbled, keeping a steady pace, “In case _you_ don’t remember, it was the very night that we were all trapped together, and I almost died.”

    “Are you gonna bloody complain for the next two miles, Min? Cause if that’s the case, we’re prepared to leave you behind.” I told him, "These woods are very easy to get lost in.”

   "And we'd just hate to lose you."

   The rest of the run was spent mostly in silence. Tommi was in a bit of a mood, but it was nothing we weren’t used to. Feed her junk food and tread carefully, and you were normally spared from her mood swings.

   We each took turns in the shower and changed into the clothes we'd left here before our run. Then we drove to school together, practically having to drag Minho out, and strap him into Roscoe.

    “What do you think I’ve been doing since I got back?” Tommi asked, using the rearview mirror to glare at him, “I had three weeks rest, before I was dropped off in front of the building, and told to have fun. So suck it up.”

 

**~oOo~**

 

    Date night was suppose to be relaxing. Go out for a fancy meal, go back to mine, watch a movie, and fall asleep in each other's arms, and then spend the next day doing whatever we wanted to. But that’s not how it worked out.

    We’d had one glass of wine before we went to check in for our reservation, and while we were walking – and kissing – I caught sight of somebody in the corner of my eye. It was Scott.

    Words were said, and Tommi left in tears. Who knew that somebody in heels like hers could move so fast, because I certainly didn’t know it was even possible, let alone that she could do it.

   And after searching for a couple hours, we finally found her, freezing, bleeding and almost naked, in the middle of the Preserve. The best I could do was keep her warm until more help arrived. We didn't have much, but our jackets would have to do for the moment.

    By the time the ambulance got to us, we had a lot more jackets, and they were all covering her. She still wasn’t moving, but her breathing was becoming better. It wasn’t as shallow anymore.

   Scott decided to argue about who got to go in the ambulance. I wanted to scoff when he said that he was her best friend. That might've been true before she was taken, but he'd screwed that up when he decided to push for information that Tommi didn't want to tell him.

    Things went from bad to worse on the ride to the hospital. She started to warm up, which was good, but with that, came the uncontrollable shaking. We had to hold her down, to stop her from doing more harm to herself. And when we got to the hospital, they took her straight back to a treatment room, and I was told to stay in the waiting room; which was exactly how Gally found me when he arrived with the Sheriff, Frypan, Scott, and a girl I recognized but didn’t know the name of.

    “Newt, how is she? Please don’t give me any bad news.”

    “I don’t know.” I continued the pacing I’d taken up about five minutes after arriving, “She started shaking in the ambulance, and they took her straight through, and now they won’t let me see her. They told me she had hypothermia.”

    “She’s going to be okay.” Gally put a hand on my shoulder, “She’s going to be okay, Newt. She’s survived much worse than this, and so have you. Don’t give up hope now.”

   "But she looked so pale. When they hooked her up to a heart monitor, it could barely pick up her heartbeat." I could feel hot tears rolling down my face, "And they had to pin her down because she was shaking so much."

    “And we’ve dealt with much worse with no proper medical equipment or training.” He pulled me towards the uncomfortable seats, “Sit down. Pacing isn’t going to make anything go faster.”

   The wait was almost unbearable. I hated having to wait for news, especially when it was as important as this. My head was buried in my knees, hoping that time would go faster if I couldn't see it. Alby, Nick, and Gally all tried to get me to look up, but I didn't want to.

    I looked up when the door opened, and out came the woman who told me to wait out here. She had curly black hair, and I later learned that her name was Melissa, and she was Scott’s mum.

   "She's okay. A little cold, but you guys got to her in time." She told me, rubbing my hand like Tommi did when I was nervous, "We still need to warm her up a bit, but you can see her if you want."

    Nodding, I stood up, and she led me through the double doors she’d walked through, to the elevators, and into a room when we got to the floor we needed. I was prepared for the worst, but she looked relatively peaceful; her chest rising and falling in a steady motion.

    “Talk to her.” The nurse said, nudging me into the room, “I’ll let you have some time with her before I go and get the others.”

    There was a couple of chairs next to the bed, and I took the closest one to her; taking her hand in mine, and rubbing my thumb across the back of her hand, just like the nurse had done with me.

    “Hey, Tommi.” I started, looking at her pale face, “You’re in the hospital. Gave us quite a scare when you ran off, and an even bigger one when we found you. I mean, I know I may have wanted to see what you had one under that dress, but I didn’t want to find out like that… Let’s just keep that between us, yeah?”

    A laugh came from the door, and I looked up to see that the nurse was still standing there, leaning against the frame of the door; a chart in one hand, and a pen in the other.

    “How long have you been standing there?” I asked, feeling my cheeks start to go red with embarrassment.

    “Not long. I was only coming back to take her vitals, before going to get the others.” She told me, coming into the room, “But you’re lucky it’s me that heard that, and not her father.”

    “You won’t tell him, will you?”

    She smiled at me, taking note of Tommi’s temperature, BP, pulse, and everything else she needed to take note of. “No. I trust Stiles to know what’s right, and I know that you make her happy.”

    "How do you…”

    “A mother knows… And I talk to Noah. Just because our kids aren’t talking, doesn’t mean we have to stop.” She put the chart down, “I’m going to get them now, so no more talking like that.”

    I watched her walk out of the room, before laying my head on the bed next to her abdomen; still holding her hand. The day was finally catching up to me, and I didn’t think that a few minutes sleep would do much harm.

    “I’m not going to leave you, Tommi.” I murmured, closing my eyes, "I’ll be here when you wake up."

 

 **~oOo~**  

 

   Since the hospital, things had gotten better. Tommi and Scott had talked it out and were being back to thick as thieves. Nick told the Pack about WICKED, the Glade, and the Maze, but he left out bits that they didn't need to know – which was mainly the deaths and injuries. And everybody was getting along if you didn't count the minor fights that ensued when somebody lost their temper.

    But all-in-all, everything was great. We'd become official members of the Pack, and learned pretty early on that, Lydia could be scary when she wanted to be. She was scarier than Derek and came pretty close to inducing the same fear that the Grievers did.

    Nick offered to drive me to Tommi’s house, for the before Prom dinner that her father put together. Tommi had already said that she wanted to have Roscoe as our ride, and she wasn’t changing it for anything. It was her way of having her mother with her. No way was I going to try and change that.

    I knocked on the front door, straightening my tie and wiping away any wrinkles that had collected during the ride here. I wanted to look my best for the Sheriff, even though I’d met him before, this was Prom, Tommi was now eighteen, and I knew this dinner wasn’t going to be just that.

    Tommi answered the door. She was in a pair of loose sweats and one of my over-sized t-shirts. Her hair was braided, with only a few strands framing her face, and all make-up but her lipstick was on.

   "Hey." She said, kissing my cheek, "I would kiss your lips, but Lydia threatened me, on pain of death, that I wasn't to mess up my hair or make-up… Plus, even though my dad likes you, he would probably stare daggers at you throughout the whole of dinner."

    “That’s okay.” I laughed, leaning down to whisper in her ear, “Just gives me a lot to look forward to.”

    Her cheeks started turning a light shade a red, and she looked down. I think it was a record on how fast I could get her to blush. She always got bashful and looked away, even though she always ended up smiling.

   Then I spotted the Sheriff behind her. I automatically straightened and took a small step back. He looked scary with that shotgun resting over his arm and made me take an even bigger step back when he loaded and locked it into place.

    “Come on in, Isaac.”

    “We talked about this, dad. You promised not to make this awkward.” She turned to face him, “And put your gun away.”

    “Just scaring him a little.” He took the cartridges out of the gun, and put it away, “You’re my only child. It is my job to look after you.”

    “We have been shot before, dad.” She told him, “While having a gun pointed at you is scary, it’s not as scary when you know the person holding the gun, isn’t actually gonna hurt you.”

    “Speak for yourself.”

    Dinner included a lot of glares – the Sheriff glaring at me, and Tommi glaring right back at him – while trying to eat as fast as we could because the Sheriff was really starting to rival Lydia with how scary he could be.

    After dinner, Tommi almost ran upstairs to get her dress and lipstick on. It was almost a relief to be away from the table, where the Sheriff was now smiling. I think it had more to do with the fact that Tommi let him have a greasy burger, chips – which are called fries over here – and pudding. He seemed to be a lot better when he was plied with the food he wasn’t allowed. That was a good thing to know for future reference.

    Now I’d seen Tommi in dresses – casual, date, and the others – but I’d never seen her in one like this. A floor-length, light blue dress, with lace and embroidery at the top. Her lipstick was a dark pink, that fit her perfectly.

    “You look… Wow.” I was speechless. She just looked so beautiful. I really couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have her.

    “Close your mouth, Newt.” She smiled, blushing slightly, and walking up to stand in front of me, “Otherwise you may catch flies.”

   "I can't really help it," I told her, tying the corsage I'd retrieved from the fridge while she was changing, round her wrist.

    That just made her blush even harder, as I held out my arm for her to take. She slipped on her heels, pinned a flower onto my lapel, and we walked out of the front door – where her father was already waiting.

    She handed me a set of keys, which I was confused about, because I already had one to her house, and there were more keys on this thing then she really needed, in all honesty. “Don’t hurt him.” She placed the keys in my hand, “Be careful. He grinds in second.”

    “Well, I feel honored to be allowed to drive him.”

    I opened the door for her, being careful not to get her dress caught in the door when I closed it. I doubted that she would forgive me if I did that, even if it was by accident.

   But the further we drove, the more nervous she ended up getting. So I took her hand and squeezed it gently; rubbing across the back of her hand. I also remembered to keep a careful eye on the road, as the Sheriff was giving us an escort to the school.

   "You look beautiful, and I am the luckiest guy because I can call you my girlfriend. It doesn't matter what others think because they'll never know you the way I do."

**Author's Note:**

> http://www.romwe.com/Black-Round-Neck-Long-Sleeve-Shift-Dress-p-191390-cat-726.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Eartha-HS1619017-0001?psrc=browse:shoes:allboots
> 
> http://www.romwe.com/Sleeveless-Backless-Pleated-Wine-Red-Dress-p-100463-cat-725.html  
> https://secure.justfab.co.uk/products/Giuseppah-PP1618979-2250?psrc=browse:shoes:going-out
> 
> Date Dress and Shoes - http://www.romwe.com/Red-Plaid-Drawstring-Waist-Shirt-Dress-p-185996-cat-726.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Nafise-BS1618431-2720?psrc=browse:shoes:allboots
> 
> http://www.romwe.com/Strap-Buttons-Flare-Black-Dress-p-127887-cat-664.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Raney-BS1619272-3850?psrc=browse%3Ashoes%3Aallboots
> 
> http://www.dresslily.com/womens-graceful-butterfly-pattern-high-waist-dress-product1457832.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Evette-HS1619019-0001?psrc=browse:shoes:Best-Sellers
> 
> http://www.dresslily.com/sleeveless-flower-print-flare-dress-product1721704.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Ronny-BS1618964-0001?psrc=browse:shoes:Best-Sellers
> 
> http://www.dresslily.com/womens-forever-love-rose-blossom-dress-product1538610.html  
> http://www.justfab.co.uk/products/Isobel-BS1719550-0001?psrc=browse:shoes:Best-Sellers
> 
> Prom Dress and Hair - http://www.dressilyme.com/p-in-stock-stunning-chiffon-bateau-neckline-full-length-a-line-prom-dresses-with-beaded-lace-appliques-66929.html  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYFbcZJDFiw
> 
> http://www.romwe.com/High-Waist-Ruffle-Skirt-p-97807-cat-682.html


End file.
